The Economist.
We talk a lot on the show about Japan's demographics.
A super-aged society, low birth rates, ever smaller families, the growing strain on the state.
But we rarely come down from these high-level takes and talk about what old age looks like in Japan.
First of all, it looks common.
Nearly 30% of the population is 65 or older.
Add in the shrinking younger generation,
and it's clear that more and more of those elderly have ever fewer people to look after them,
to hang out with them, to square things away when they die.
It's kind of a universal anxiety, that, dying alone.
And Japanese are suffering from what might be called an epidemic of it.
So, they're doing something about it.
I'm Jason Palmer, and this is The Weekend Intelligence.
My colleague Moeka Iida has, for very personal reasons, been thinking about this a lot.
In truth, many of us are, or should be.
Japan is just further ahead on demographic trends that you can already see in lots of rich countries.
So how is it dealing with what the anxious everywhere would like to hear?
That you don't have to live lonely?
That you don't have to die alone?
How to ensure that, at the end, everyone has someone?