ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes worries about solitary death using recent survey data from Japan. It focuses on identifying age-specific variables predicting worries about solitary death in different age groups. With older people being more likely to die and thus being more exposed to the risk of dying alone, assumed worries about solitary death, to show higher levels in older age, also to show a higher negative correlation with happiness in old age and to be correlated to different variables over the age groups. Although the problem of people dying alone might be an old one, Japan in the 21st century is facing a rapid rise in incidents of solitary death as well as an increasing awareness of the problem. The chapter emphasizes the preceding period of isolation from society before the actual death, official authorities in Japan chose to use the term koritsushi, an "isolated death", instead of kodokushi.
