In February 2021, the Japanese government did something many countries still considered unthinkable: it created a Ministry for Loneliness and Isolation. It was not a symbolic gesture. It was an urgent response to a devastating reality.
During the pandemic, suicides among young women in Japan rose by 70%. In a culture where asking for help can feel like burdening others, the state decided to intervene before more people disappeared in silence.
1 Japan's response: pragmatic and wide-ranging
Today the post is held by Mihara Junko. Under her leadership, Japan has built a structural approach to loneliness:
- 2018 — United Kingdom
First country to create a Ministry for Loneliness, with Tracey Crouch as minister.
- 2021 — Japan
Creates its own ministry following a 70% rise in female suicides during the pandemic.
- April 2024 — Japan
Passes a national law requiring local governments to act against isolation.
- May — Prevention Month
Japan declares May the Month for the Prevention of Loneliness and Isolation.
2 Concrete initiatives that work
- Kodomo Shokudo: community cafeterias offering food and company to kagikko — children who come home alone with the key around their neck.
- Hikikomori centres: specialist support for young people who have spent years confined to their rooms.
- Partnerships with utility companies to detect extreme isolation through consumption patterns.
- Platforms like Notalone integrating job guidance and psychological support.
- A government chatbot that guides people empathetically towards the right resource.
"Every country faces this problem. What the world wants to know is how Japan addresses it with humility, trial and error."
— Tetsushi Sakamoto, Japan's first Minister for Loneliness
3 Spain: the problem exists; the response does not
What seems exceptional in Japan today is, in reality, a preview of what many societies are already experiencing. In Spain, more than 1.3 million older adults live in unwanted loneliness. In Europe, population ageing and family fragmentation are accelerating a crisis the WHO already considers a serious public health risk.
And yet we continue to treat loneliness as a private matter, almost shameful, rather than a collective priority.
Japan shows that another response is possible.
It is not about filling the void with noise, but about redesigning the spaces where human bonds are formed. About investing in community. About normalising mutual care.
Because no one should grow old in oblivion. Not in Tokyo. Not in Málaga. Not anywhere.
That commitment to dignity in old age is the starting point of everything we do at CuidadIA.
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