A government report showed that nearly 500 people aged 65 and older died between 2006 and 2024 in Japan as a result of murder or abuse by caregivers, reflecting the increasingly harsh environment surrounding in-home caregiving, local media reports said Sunday.
The number of elderly-only households has exceeded 17 million, with increasing cases in which both the caregiver and receiver are elderly, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported, citing a report released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Experts stressed that the cited 486 deaths are just "the tip of the iceberg."
Of those fatalities, 142 were men and 344 women, with 220 cases involving murder, murder-suicide, and attempted murder-suicide committed by relatives, in which only the elderly person died.
Others were due to neglect, abuse, and cases with unknown causes.
Of the 483 perpetrators, 343 were men and 140 were women. The most common relationship to the victim was son, followed by husband.
Financial hardship and caregiver exhaustion were among the reported causes of the murders and other incidents.
