From our other sites
The story
The “Adult Women’s Dorm,” where single women who feel they have “nowhere to spend their final years” come together, is drawing attention. It’s a setup where unmarried women in their 40s to 80s live in an apartment complex built around community. On the day of reporting, the session was limited to repeat visitors, and 13 people took part — coming not just from Osaka but from outside the prefecture too, including Hyogo and Fukui. Behind this lies the reality that elderly people living alone are often turned down when they try to rent. On the thread, some welcomed it as “making perfect sense,” while others raised doubts about the roughly ¥200,000-plus monthly cost, and about the condition that residents who can no longer live independently — say, due to dementia — must “graduate” to a care facility. Whether a men’s version could ever work was also a hot topic.
(Omitted)
The “Adult Women’s Dorm” is a project in which single women roughly in their 40s to 80s come together to build an apartment complex with a built-in community. The day of the interview was a session limited to repeat visitors, with 13 people attending in total — coming not only from Osaka but from outside the prefecture too, including Hyogo and Fukui.
■ Elderly people living alone are often refused rental contracts
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
You'd need someone with a fastidious personality like Shin Sakagami (TV personality famous for being a neat freak) who actually cleans up properly…
A lot of guys have that immature "I'm the boss, put me first!" mentality.
It's wild that dudes are still doing the "I'm the alpha here!" thing even in a nursing home.
Funny thing is, conversation never seems to dry up between women.
Doesn't work that way between men.
"Graduate," lol.
Well, I guess you'd have to charge that much for it to be a viable business.
Seriously?
There's no way I could pay that much.
That's basically the same as my mortgage.
Guess that can't be helped…
Re: #36
Care facilities aren't free — how can they just unilaterally send someone off like that?
On that front, my hometown of Mibu, Tochigi is reassuring, since it's a leading region for elder care and medicine.
Even a corporate slave like me managed to take care of my crappy old man almost single-handedly.
That's exactly what public housing is for.
Can't qualify on my current income, but once I'm living off my pension I'll be able to get in.
This place is only for people with money, so it's a totally different thing, lol.
even when I go to the living room, I've got nothing to talk about.
I wish they'd make something like this for men too, but maybe it's just harder to pull off with guys.
Even when elderly men want someone to talk to,
nobody wants to talk to an elderly man —
including other elderly men, lol.
I mentioned this briefly before, but when I visited my father's facility,
the men's table was just dead silent.
Hit a little too close to home.
I don't think there's anything wrong with sitting in silence.
Forcing people into group activities is basically harassment.
Better to just let people read on their own.
There was a gathering of retired Japanese women who'd moved to Chiang Mai —
it was hell, capital H.
It's game over the moment one strong "office queen bee" type moves in.
Get on her bad side and you'll be forced out in no time.
It really is hard to rent when you get older.
People who can afford to get into a place like this could probably just buy a condo or a house outright, though.
Something like ¥180,000 a month for 70 square meters?
18 square meters for ¥250,000 a month.
Deposit: 14 months' rent. Key money: 2 months' rent.
Isn't "graduation" just code for going to a facility?
No idea if they've partnered with one, but between savings plans and whatnot, it seems like it could work out somehow.
Isn't the point that there are already people struggling at the stage before that?
Her current apartment is old and she's reportedly being evicted because of it.
At that age, if she talks to city hall, she'd get top priority for public housing.
Public housing gives priority to people 60 and over.
If she consults her local government, something can usually be worked out.
Even single elderly men manage to sort it out that way.
Kind of pointless, right?
What are they supposed to do?
People who never marry and end up with no next of kin get cut off even by their own siblings.
Wouldn't it already be something if they just properly take you to the hospital and get you diagnosed?
Background and Key Points of This Story
Elderly people living alone are often turned down as tenants because landlords worry about risks like solitary death or unpaid rent, and single elderly women — who often struggle to line up a guarantor — tend to find their options especially limited. This “Adult Women’s Dorm” is an attempt to fill that gap, but opinions on the thread split mainly along two lines. One was cost: commenters pointed to the burden of a monthly fee said to run over ¥200,000. The other was the condition that residents must “graduate” to a care facility once they can no longer live independently — several questioned whether the people who actually struggle most are precisely those hovering right at the line of being able to live independently or not. Some also asked whether a men’s version could work, though the original article itself only covers this women’s case and doesn’t mention any equivalent effort aimed at men.
※This article is an excerpt and summary based on the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “‘Nowhere to Spend My Final Years’: The ‘Adult Women’s Dorm’ Where Elderly Single Women Gather — ‘Newly Built, Near the Station,’ ‘Independent Living Required’… Why Supporters Are Flooding in From Across Japan.”
Leave a Reply