The Limits of Dwelling and the Unwitnessed Death

What is it about?

In recent decades, aging in place while receiving community-based care has been the preferred model for frail or disabled solo-dwelling adults. This article considers the consequences of this model in contemporary urban Japan. One consequence is the emphasis on the prevention of solitary deaths. This article argues that despite official narratives of independent and successful aging, local citizens and volunteers experience Japan's aging society as one haunted by the unwitnessed deaths. The uncanny images and stories about these solitary deaths that circulate reveal a tense relationship between age, home, and social disconnection as well as the efforts to renarrate, replot or ritualize solitary deaths

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