On the other hand, these photos show us a country where old people can live a full life regardless of their age. They are working, they have something to do and the society doesn't just shove them aside as some goods past their expiration date.
Coming from Canada a better aspect here is that rent & food are much much cheaper, so they are less likely to starve or freeze to death in case of work disability.
But I stand corrected if this is an urban myth.
Being without work, and without family, means being nothing, means abandoning yourself and dying.
I remember reading how many offices and what not keep -easy- jobs for the elderly if they don't want to retire.
Here in the west they will put you in an old-person house hoping you die sooner so they can inherit the house or whatever.
WTF
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/10/17/business/senior...
No it doesn't. Or at least it doesn't if you refuse to accept that attitude. If you have enough income to live and a little left over you can take charge of your life.
I was afraid that I would be at a loose end with nothing to do when I retired at 62. But now like many of my friends I just wonder how I ever had time to hold down a job. Of course I am slightly privileged because I had a reasonably well paying job and have accumulated enough money to be comfortable.
It's not lack of work that makes life difficult, it is lack of money.
In Japan, your vocation is a really big deal.
People have been known to commit suicide, when they have been let go.
It's really easy to be dismissive, and project our own society's norms onto others, with a "That's so silly! Why don't they just..." modifier, but that's just so silly.
I've been to Japan a lot (Tokyo, mostly). I used to work for a Japanese corporation, and traveled there regularly. I had/have many Japanese friends.
Personally, I could not live in that society. There's a lot of stuff that would be far too grating for me, but there's also some really awesome stuff.
The same can be said for any society.
You mean like how I.T. management treats programmers over 50?
My grandmother depends on her independent living facility’s bus shuttle to get anywhere. There is no public bus and no destinations reachable by walking or transit. Zero.
In these photos I see a country where infrastructure is so good that the elderly manage to run full blown businesses, and where elderly live healthy longer since they aren’t living their lives sitting on couches on wheels in the McDonald’s drive thru.
The investment necessary to install and operate public transportation that operates on fixed routes and schedules is completely infeasible. There isn’t even a single taxi or Uber in town - they didn’t pay.
A century ago, this area was full of small farms, which were self-sufficient and people would make it an entire winter without leaving their property. Those days are gone. The same would have been true for rural Japan, though the latter had a higher density of small towns and small crafts, e.g. tofu makers within walking distance.
Mass transit works great in Tokyo, where these pictures were taken, and it works worldwide at similar population densities, better than cars.
Rural US has chosen the privately owned car as its transportation system. It works well. Perhaps it can be augmented with roboUbers, but remember the issues with electric scooters!
This is interesting that you say that you can't bike in the winter, Finnish people have no trouble biking in the winter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU
It also seems odd that it's no problem to plow and salt a gigantic interstate highway system in the USA but somehow it's impossible to clear some small bike lanes.
Before you say "only fit people can cycle," Netherlands has microcars that the elderly and disabled can use on bike lanes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ly7JjqEb0
It's weird that you say that installing and operating mass transportation is "completely infeasible" when that's the status quo in Japan.
Rail in Japan: (Wikipedia)
Ridership: 7.589 billion (2014)
Passenger km: 260 billion (2014)
System length
Total: 30,625 km
Electrified: 21,600 km
Rail in USA: (Wikipedia)
Ridership: 549,631,632
29 million (Amtrak only) (2014)
Passenger km: 10.3 billion (2014)
How does a country with less than half the population of the USA take 15x the trips and ride 26x the kilometers when their population density is only 10x higher. And, really, if you just talk about major population centers on the coasts and Midwest, the USA doesn't look crazy different than Japan. The Northeast Megalopolis has 3x higher population density than Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis
For example, this very rural line with a single rail car has a more frequent timetable than Amtrak's Chicago to Milwaukee train, which connects two large metro areas that are within feasible commuting distance:
Video of the line demonstrating how rural it is. Each train only has one car!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIRlmM8wI1g
Timetable (PDF link)
https://www.akita-nairiku.com/timetable/pdf/20220312_02timet...
It's also weird that you say that this can only work in places with high population density, when we know that's not the case. The population of Denmark is similar to Indiana, with Indiana beating Denmark in population density, and the population of Sweden is similar to Ohio, with Ohio having 10x Sweden's population density.
Explain then why there's no passenger train from Chicagoland (same size as all of Sweden) to Columbus, Ohio (same size as Copenhagen), a distance of 350 miles (which includes passing through two other sizable cities), but I can get on a high speed train from Copenhagen to Stockholm and cross into a different country covering a driving distance of about 400 miles.
We also know density has nothing to do with it because the USA was built almost entirely on rail. There are hundreds if not thousands of railroad town in the USA.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Railroad-Network-in-...
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/apr/03/mapped-histor...
> Rural US has chosen the privately owned car as its transportation system. It works well.
Does it work well? Car crashes are the #2 accidental killer behind guns (used to be #1). The USA's traffic death rate per 100,000 people is 6x higher than Sweden and 3x higher than Japan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
Your "fact" on accidental gun "killings" v. fatal car accidents is far from reality. In 2021, there were 2,007 accidental gun fatalities.[0] In 2021, per your doc, the total US transportation deaths were 42,915, all presumably accidental.
[0] https://www.aftermath.com/content/accidental-shooting-deaths...
Why do you think an expanded train system would suck? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I like commuter rail and subways in Boston. I wish the parking was better at the railheads, that would encourage use. If I lived in Boston, I wouldn't need to own a car, I'd just rent one as needed for trips outside the area.
Once I drive as far as Boston suburbs, I might as well keep going in. It's faster to cover the final distance by car, and the parking fees aren't too bad, once I subtract the rail and subway fares I'd otherwise need to pay.
Also, I can load all my packages and bags into the back of my car. The subway is really inconvenient for that.