Older people offer home and affective skills to families, says a company. In an aged and inclined society for isolation, filling voids has become a job.
In one of the countries that faster aging in the world, it is possible “Renting a grandmother” for one day. At least one company in Japan offers this service to families.
The idea is that families can benefit from domestic skills and wisdom of elderly women and at the same time prevent them from living isolated.
“At the moment, 100 women, aged 60 to 94 yearsthey are using their homework skills acquired over the years, as well as the wisdom and experience that only one grandmother has, ”says the website of the company Client Partners.
The service is advised for those who have many needs at home. One of the main focuses is parents who need help to take care of their children at specific times, or advice on how to better educate them. But several other possibilities are also presented, such as obtaining help to improve the relationship with the mother -in -law, learn to sewprepare traditional rituals or Fill the void left by the death of a mother or grandmother.
“Young people have respect and gratitude for the elders, who connect with society and find a purpose in their lives. As a first step to such a society, we want to offer services that take the largest party to the wisdom and experience of the elderly who supported Japan,” continues the agency’s website that connects families to older women.
Epidemic loneliness
In 2020, Japan had the most aged society in the world, with 28.7% of the population with 65 years and overthe majority being women. The European Union index, by comparison, was 20.4%. The world average was 9.1%.
The forecast, at the time, was that one third of the Japanese would belong to this age group in 2036.
A report published by the National Institute of Research on Population and Social Security in Japan, in late November, concluded that unipessial aggregates will represent 44.3% of the total in the country by 2050. This number is expected to reach 54.1% in the capital, Tokyo.
According to the document, 10.8 million people aged 65 will live alone in 2050 – an increase of 50% compared to the number recorded in 2020. Already a census made in 2020 pointed out that 38% of homes were composed by one person, compared to 20% in 1985.
Kodokushi, sad and worrying phenomenon attributed to various reasons
The aging trend and reduction of the population accentuates an old and well -known problem – designated as epidemic loneliness in the country that even has one. In 2024, the police predicted that 68 thousand people would die alone at home, without anyone tellingaccording to a report from the British newspaper The Guardian.
The phenomenon of solitary deaths even has a name in Japanese: kodokushi. According to investigators, these deaths occur for various reasons, including a propensity of Japanese society for isolation.
“The increase in single -person households It can be attributed to a variety of reasons, including late weddings, increased number of divorces and increased number of people who have never married“They wrote researcher Kimiko Tomioka of the Medical University of Nara and colleagues in a scientific article.
They are not just grandparents
According to the study, the trend is explained by a change in posture in relation to marriage and the impossibility of constituting a family due to high financial costs.
“I have the opportunity to go out and have these experiences and that’s why accepting this job was the right decision for me,” confesses a “rental grandmother” in Tokyo to Australian public ABC.
The company that offers the service also argues that It is difficult for old women to find job opportunities in Japan – Something relevant in a country where 20% of people over 65 live in povertyaccording to data from 2021 from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In 2023, ZAP reported a solution found by Japanese entrepreneurs for these elderly women, more specifically victims of Alzheimer’s: O, where all employees have dementia.
The site states that the price charged for the “rental grandmother” service is 3,300 yen (about 19.20 euros) per houranother fixed rate of the same value per visit.
The practice of “renting” services provided by specific groups in Japan is not restricted to grandparents. There are also services that agrees middle-aged men and other groups to play specific roles in family or affective contexts. It is possible, for example, to hire someone to have a company at a lunch or to make a social event.
