After he was diagnosed with leukemia in July, Katsuo Saito decided not to treat it and opted for palliative care. He had a hard time finding a bed in a hospice or hospital, so he spent most of his remaining weeks at home.
"There are about 20 people on the waiting lists," Saito, 89, said in his fifth-floor apartment in Tokyo, where he lived alone.
Many Japanese are reluctant to die at home because they feel hospitals are safer and they don't want to burden family members.