This is a one-year independent research project that studies about Lonely Death. Kodokushi or lonely death refers to a Japanese phenomenon of people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time. But now, Lonely Death is not only a Japanese issue anymore, it is universal. For this project, we take Lonely Death caused by natural disaster as a starting point. by studying the elderly’s psychology and recreating elder people’s living environment. We hope to help intervene with the current situation. For this winter session, we got to know what the elder people think in Japan by visiting and interviewing both the victims evacuated from disaster areas, the aged people who are not victims, and the volunteers who take care of the elderly.
Looking at the settings within which the elders are, all that they need and ask for is to be visited and loved by family, their children and grandchildren; and most importantly and forgettably, to own the opportunities to give love and provide care to people they love which means they need to be involved in social events because this make them feel helpful. And this fits the concept “恩（en)“ . “恩(en)” is a very important spirit and behaving rule in Japanese society, which indicates that “one gives what they received back to express their kindness and appreciation”
