There are more than 40,000 people aged 100 or over in Japan and this number is expected to increase. In 2009, Japanese women had the world's longest life expectancy of 86.44 years and men the world's fifth longest life expectancy of 79.59 years. Japan is certainly a country of long life expectancy. But recent events highlight a problem — some families have very weak bonds with elderly relatives.

In late July, the mummified body of a man was found in his house in Adachi Ward, Tokyo. Until recently the ward office believed that he was Tokyo's oldest living man at age 111. A district welfare commissioner's complaint in January that it was impossible to meet him eventually led to the discovery of his body. It is believed that he had been dead for more than 30 years. Four family members, including his 81-year-old daughter, have been living in the same house.

Soon afterward it surfaced that the location of a 113-year-old woman, registered in Tokyo's Suginami Ward and regarded as Tokyo's oldest living person, was unknown. Her 79-year-old eldest daughter said the last time she saw her mother was more than 20 years ago. Her second eldest daughter had not contacted her family members for some 50 years and did not want to meet them. Her second eldest son said his mother went away some 30 years ago. (Her eldest son is dead.)