TOKYO, Japan (The Mainichi Daily News), September 11, 2008:
Households in which the elderly are caring for the aged comprise more than 30 percent of households in which family members are serving as care givers to other family members, according to a government survey.
The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare recently released the results of the "2007 Basic Survey of National Life."
The number of households comprised of married couples with at least one spouse aged 65 or older, or of persons 65 or older living alone has exceeded 10 million for the first time.
The survey sheds light on the serious challenges faced by Japan's ultra-aging society as it finds that the majority of elderly households feel that their lives are a "struggle."
The survey, which has been conducted annually since 1986, collected responses from about 230,000 households. Every third year, the survey asks questions about home care and health.
Elderly Japanese couple. Time / Getty May 12, 2008.As of June 2007, there were an estimated 48.03 million households in Japan, of which 19.26 million had at least one member aged 65 or older, or nearly double the number of such households reported in the 1986 survey.
Of households with at least one member aged 65 or above, 4.33 million consisted of an elderly person living alone, and 5.73 million consisted of married couples living on their own. Both of these figures are records. Thus, the total number of households with one or both members aged 65 or above reached 10.06 million, accounting for about 21 percent of all households.
In 2006, the average income of these elderly households was 3.06 million yen, or less than 60 percent of the average household income, and their per capita income was about 120,000 yen less than the average per capita income for all households. Fifty-two percent of the elderly households responded that their lives were a "struggle."
Twelve percent of households reported that they relied primarily on home care service providers to care for the elderly, down 2 points from 2004. In 60 percent of households, a family member living under the same roof provided the care, and in 34 percent of these households, the care was provided by a family member who was 70 or above, an increase of 6 percentage points from 2004. Of the family members who cared for other family members in their 70s, 44 percent were themselves also in their 70s.
Among those family members who cared for other family members not in their 70s, 22 percent reported that they provided care for almost the entire day, 10 percent reported "for half a day," and 60 percent said that they experience "torment and stress."
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Statistics and Information Department says that "as households continue to age and shrink in size, the number of younger generation families who provide care for the elderly has declined. While home care service providers are being used, the burden on families remains heavy."
Copyright 2008 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS
