In Japan, the elderly victims of housing discrimination

Lack of guarantees, isolated deaths … The owners are afraid of the problems linked to loneliness. The government, worried, has set up a reflection group on the subject to try to fight against this phenomenon.

In Japan, it is no longer the students who struggle to find accommodation, but the elderly. There have been several studies with Japanese people over 65 or over 75 years old. One in three elderly people says they were refused accommodation because of their age. In the last survey of the real estate agency R65, 10% of seniors explain that their file was refused by at least five owners. But why don’t the owners want to rent their property for the elderly? They have several reasons. But overall, the problem is the risks linked to the loneliness of the elderly.

This may be widowers, widows or people who have not had partners for years. Above all, they are often people who have no children. Japan faces an exceptional demographic crisis. For decades, the Japanese have been doing less and less a baby. There are millions of people who do not have a heir or no direct directly. This is a problem in Japan, because real estate agencies can request who can guarantee that rents will be well paid in time if the person has a health problem or a financial problem. Even private insurance groups, which can normally guarantee, hesitate to ensure elderly people living alone.

The owners are also very afraid of tenants who could die alone in the apartments. Japanese police now lists 80,000 isolated deaths per year. Often, we only find the bodies decaying until after several days or several weeks. The owners are then obliged to do enormous work and they must report to the next tenants that there have been a little gore in the living room or in the bedroom. This leads to a discount on the rent, it is compulsory. This is why the owners are hesitant.

The government is considering guarantee systems to reassure owners. We also start to see real estate agencies specializing in rental for the elderly. This is the case with R65. They work with more tolerant owners and they are also guarantors for single people who have no one to count.