Japan suffers from a shortage of nursing care facilities for the elderly, despite the fact that demand is rising rapidly as the boomer generation enters its dotage. The shortage is particularly acute in Tokyo, where local governments are trying to ship poorer old people off to the countryside because there is no room for them at facilities they can afford in the capital.

A recent installment of the NHK news show "Close-up Gendai" profiled a new nursing home in the Tokyo's Setagaya Ward with space for 110 residents. However, it is unable to open due to a lack of staff. Nursing care is hard work and notoriously underpaid.

That's a serious problem, since the central and local governments are cutting subsidies to nursing care facilities and want to cut more. Though nonprofit in nature, these kōeki (public welfare) facilities are allowed to accumulate up to 30 percent of their revenue, and the government thinks that many should spend some of this cash to relieve the government burden.