About 4,000 people were found more than a month after they died in isolation, the report said

About 40,000 people died alone in their homes in Japan during the first half of 2024, the country’s police report said.

Of that number, approximately 4,000 people were found dead in more than a month, while 130 bodies were not lost for a year before they were found, according to the National Police Agency.

Japan currently has the world’s oldest population, according to the United Nations.

The organization hopes that its report will shed light on the growing issue in this country of a large number of elderly people living and dying alone.

Taken in the first half of 2024, National Police Agency data shows that a total of 37,227 people living alone were found dead at home, with those aged 65 and over accounting for more than 70%.

Although approximately 40% of people who died alone at home were found within a day, a police report found that approximately 3,939 bodies were found more than a month after they died, while 130 had been lying unrecognized for at least a year before they were found.

Of the 7,498 bodies found, the largest group was those aged 85 and over, followed by those aged 75-79 at 5,920. People between the ages of 70 and 74 accounted for 5,635 of the bodies found.

According to Japan’s public TV network NHK, the police agency will hand over the findings to a government team looking into unattended deaths.

At the beginning of this year, the Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, said that the number of elderly citizens (aged 65 and over) living alone is expected to reach 10.8m by 2050.

The number of one-person households is estimated at 23.3m in the same year.

In April, the Japanese government introduced a bill that tackles the country’s decades-long problem of loneliness and isolation, partly caused by the country’s aging population.

Japan has long been trying to combat an aging and shrinking population, but this change is becoming increasingly difficult for the country to manage.

Last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his the country is on the brink of not being able to function as a society due to the declining birth rate.

Other neighboring countries face similar census challenges.

In 2022, China’s population declined for the first time since 1961while South Korea has repeatedly reported the lowest fertility rate in the world.