Around 40% of people aged 16 and older say they feel lonely, according to a Cabinet Office survey. The Cabinet Office conducts a nationwide survey to gauge the scale of loneliness and social isolation in Japan. Its latest results, released on April 14, found that roughly 40% of respondents aged 16 and older reported experiencing loneliness.
Loneliness is different from isolation, which refers to the physical absence of people around someone. It is an internal state, making it difficult for others to recognize. Even people who appear to be leading successful, trouble-free lives may be quietly struggling with it.
What, then, should someone do when loneliness takes hold? Experts say the most important step is to tell someone. Without an outlet, loneliness can grow inside a person, creating a vicious cycle that becomes harder to break.
Loneliness Can Come Suddenly
“Loneliness is something anyone can suddenly experience,” says Masakazu Negishi, director of Anata no Ibasho, an NPO that offers online counseling and support.
Even people who seem to be doing well can suffer in silence. Some feel a painful gap between the self they present to others and their real self, leaving them with a sense of loneliness that they feel unable to share.
Nor do outward living arrangements necessarily determine how lonely a person feels. “Even someone in a functioning marriage may be unable to talk openly with their spouse about what is troubling them, and may feel lonely as a result,” Negishi says.
The problems people carry also differ by age and background. Teenagers often struggle with school or relationships with their parents. For people in their 20s, work becomes a major source of anxiety, while those in their 30s and older increasingly face worries related to family and daily life.
Talking It Out Can Stop the Cycle
Why do four in ten people feel lonely?
Negishi says communication within workplaces and local communities has weakened. “It is not a matter of whether that’s good or bad,” he says. “That’s simply the kind of society we live in now.” He adds that the trend has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing became a part of daily life.
Some worries are difficult to voice, even to close friends or people we talk to often.
“When you keep your worries to yourself, they start to spiral inside you,” Negishi says. Vague feelings of unease can gradually turn into darker thoughts. Once that happens, loneliness begins to feed on itself and grow.
To prevent this, Negishi says, “it is important to have a route for talking about your worries.” That could be a parent or a friend. For those who find it hard to talk to someone close to them, anonymous online counseling services or local consultation desks can also help them reach out.
Anata no Ibasho provides free, anonymous online chat support to anyone, 24 hours a day, year-round. The organization says it currently handles around 1,200 consultations a day.
Negishi says that when someone turns to you for help, simply listening can make a difference. But taking in another person’s worries can also weigh on the listener. In such cases, he says, pointing them toward a support service can be another meaningful way to help.
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(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: Akari Hasegawa, The Sankei Shimbun
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