Japan's financial firms grapple with how to support customers affected by dementia
Financial institutions are starting to implement measures to address issues related to their graying customer base — particularly, a growing number of dementia sufferers — to help them better manage their finances. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, elderly people hold 60 percent ...
As population ages, Japan's convenience stores find future in funerals
It might escape the notice of a passerby that Davius Living Yamato, a one-story building standing unassumingly on a street in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a funeral parlor. Little about the exterior of this no-frills facility suggests anything funereal inside. In fact, if you mistook it ...
Tokyo police use dog walkers to raise awareness among elderly people about fraud cases
Dogs and their owners paraded down streets in Tokyo on Monday to help prevent people from becoming victims of frauds in which swindlers make phone calls pretending to be relatives asking for money. Some 20 dogs, dressed in costumes bearing messages telling elderly people not ...
In smartphone era, flip phones finding second life among elderly Japanese
The smartphone may have the dominant position in the marketplace, but old-school flip phones, or garakei, are finding a second life among elderly Japanese because of their low cost and ease of use. Shops handling used garakei are visited by many people looking for handsets ...
Taiwan looks to Japan for solutions to demographic woes
Between 2012 and 2018, Taiwanese authorities closed 594 schools islandwide. They also cut thousands of classes at the remaining schools and reduced the hiring of new teachers. All were steps taken in response to an ongoing fall in enrollments — approximately 100,000 fewer students per ...
A man who lost his wife and daughter in a car crash in central Tokyo in April collected signatures in a park near the site of the accident on Saturday as part of a petition drive he organized calling for the 88-year-old driver responsible ...
Japan's social security benefits topped ¥120 trillion to hit record high in 2017
Social security benefits paid out in fiscal 2017 reached a record high and exceeded ¥120 trillion for the first time, a welfare ministry-affiliated think tank said Friday. The figure for the year to March 2018 stood at ¥120.24 trillion, up 1.6 percent from the previous ...
Despite winning more seats in Upper House vote, Komeito officials worry about losing support
Komeito boosted its presence in the House of Councilors in the latest election, but a sense of crisis among party officials has deepened as the number of votes it acquired under the proportional representation system fell by more than 1 million compared to the ...
Singapore promotes gardening for elderly in bid to fight loneliness
Since her mother died last year, 74-year-old Lim Yeo Hong has been living alone in a flat on the outskirts of Singapore, scavenging for cardboard scraps which she sells for a living. The only time she meets anyone is once a month when she collects ...
The real policy challenges facing Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must place priority on resolving several major policy challenges confronting Japan before he tries to revise the Constitution.
Drawing inspiration from youth climate movement, 100-year-old German granny enters politics
German great-grandmother Lisel Heise's ambition to enter politics crystallized a few years before her 100th birthday, when organizers of a public hearing cut off her microphone. Heise, who retired from teaching school 40 years ago, was arguing for the reopening of an outdoor pool. "When I ...
Japan to conduct tests for prospective caregivers in four Asian nations this fall
Japan will conduct tests in Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia this fall for prospective caregivers who want to work in Japan under a new visa program, according to government officials. The labor ministry said last week that the exams, aimed at securing more workers in ...
