It's been reported that the average life expectancy of Japanese women has given up the lead to Hong Kong women for the first time in 27 years. In this report, two major reasons are pointed out. The one is that many people died from the massive earthquake and tsunami which happened about a year and half ago. The other is that the number of women in their 20's who committed suicide has increased. When I first heard of this news, I remembered that in the Tokyo area, for a while after that earthquake, trains were often delayed because of people jumping on to the rail track from the platform. Sadly, this kind of "accident" often happens in Japan, but during that period, my friends and I felt that train delays happened more often than usual due to people attempting to take their lives. I wondered why such many people were in a rush to die under the circumstances where tens of thousands of people had been washed away by the massive tsunami. I'm sure that these victims didn't want to finish their lives that way.
Japanese people, especially women, are known to live long. However, I've been wondering how many of them enjoy their lives without any medical support. I've heard that the longevity of Japanese people is questioned because they tend to be overly dependent on advanced medical treatment. As a matter of fact, the issue of what kind of medical treatment patients over 70 or 80 with a fatal disease should get has been controversial. More people than before frown on medical treatments for these patients just to prolong their lives. I think that this tendency has also put downward pressure on the average life expectancy of Japanese people.
I think that I know about pension, medical and nursing care service for elderly people better than others because of my mother-in-law with dementia. The more I know about that, the more I realize these services are on the verge of collapse due to the rapidly growing number of elderly people. On top of that, my experience has brought home to me taking care of elderly family members with dementia at home is a tough job. It's been reported that the number of people who were forced to quit their jobs to take care of their family members has sharply increased. It's very hard both mentally and financially to deal with these issues.
Every time I hear about the longevity of Japanese people, I have mixed feelings.
