POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
Foreign
Correspondent
2022
Flying
Solo
29
mins 40 secs
©2021
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW
2007 Australia
GPO
Box 9994
Sydney
NSW
2001 Australia
Phone:
61 419 231 533
Precis
|
Around
the world more and more people are opting for the single life but in Japan,
loneliness has become an epidemic. Marriage
and childbirth rates are falling, as more and more young Japanese choose to
stay single and childless. Relationships are too difficult, they say. In the
country's last Fertility Survey, figures showed that a quarter of women in
their 30s were single, and half of those weren't interested in having a
relationship. Many
Japanese adults aren't even having sex. It's estimated around 10 per cent of
people in their 30s are still virgins. By 2040, it's estimated nearly half of
Japan's population will be single. Correspondent
Jake Sturmer has reported from the ABC's Tokyo bureau for four years and
nothing has confounded him more than this social crisis. As he prepares to
return to Australia, Jake sets out on a final journey to discover the forces
driving this 'Solo Society'. He meets 29-year-old
Sayaka, who works in the fashion industry. Sayaka is happily single and not
interested in getting married. "I'm under a lot of (social) pressure but
I don't mind," she says. "There's nothing I can't do without a man
at the moment." Instead, the objects of her affection are her dogs -
Kogemaru, Unimaru, Rinmaru and Riko - whom she loves to spoil. Naoya, a
32-year-old creative director for an advertising company, isn't in a rush to
get married either. He often feels lonely but hanging out with friends cheers
him up."It's fun drinking with my friends like
this and I'm able to fill in the loneliness," Naoya tells Jake in a cosy
bar in downtown Tokyo. Jake also
explores a darker side of Japanese society, meeting a man who has opted out
in an extreme way, hiding in his bedroom and avoiding society altogether.
He's what's called a hikikomori, someone who withdrawn socially. In Japan
there are more than a million hikikomori. Jake meets the mother of one who's
become an activist, campaigning for Japanese society to be more tolerant of
those who don't fit the mould. "People
believe they need to change the people who've withdrawn but I think it's
exactly the opposite. I think the society should change," she says. Jake
spends time with Masatomi, a cleaner whose job is to clear out the homes of
those who die alone. Each year, tens of thousands of Japanese end their lives
alone, their bodies often found after neighbours detect an odour. Masatomi is
calling for Japanese people to sit up and take notice. "It's something
that could happen to anybody including myself. I strongly feel that we need
to have connections with other people. I feel outrage, why don't they see
what's going on?" |
|
|
Tokyo
nightlife GVs |
Music |
00:10 |
|
Jake
walks, Tokyo |
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: I’ve been the ABC’s Tokyo Correspondent for four years, and I have to admit, I’ve really fallen for Japan. It’s endlessly exciting, and one of the
most vibrant places on Earth. But there’s something deeply troubling going
on. Why is it that in this economic powerhouse, millions of people are hiding
from the world? |
00:19 |
|
Hidehiro |
Hidehiro: I
thought I didn't fit in and I was bad or inferior. |
00:45 |
|
Masatomi
at apartment clean up |
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: Tens of thousands of people are dying alone and
neglected. |
00:52 |
|
|
Masatomi Yokoo: It is in a terrible
condition. |
01:00 |
|
Sayaka
and Rika walk with dogs in prams |
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Birth numbers are plummeting, and people are staying single. |
01:06 |
|
|
Rika: It's not that young people are disinterested in
sex, but
that they don't want to get entangled with other people. |
01:12 |
|
Tokyo
night GVs |
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: As I finish my
posting, and pack up to leave Japan, this is one story I haven’t yet told,
and it’s a difficult one to tell. |
01:21 |
|
Jake
to camera. Super: |
This
is a rich and powerful country, but it's facing a social crisis, and before I
go I want to understand why. |
01:30 |
|
Title:
Flying Solo |
Music |
01:40 |
|
Tokyo
trains/men commute to work. Super: |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Nearly every day from
World War 2 on, an army of men thronged to work. Men sacrificed their lives
for the firm and the family, and women stayed home to mind the children. But
the economic miracle it built was shattered in the 1990s. Things changed;
women could work, and work became more insecure and competitive. The old
rules don’t suit the modern world, but new rules aren’t replacing them. It’s
a paradox causing deep social anxiety. |
01:45 |
|
Sayaka at
dog grooming parlour |
Music |
02:25 |
|
|
Jake:
"How are you?" Sayaka:
"Yes, I'm well." |
02:28 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Sayaka Kinjo has a successful career in the
fashion industry and she has no intention of
following society’s old rules by getting married and having children. Instead she spoils her much-loved dogs. Sayaka:
They’re the centre of my life. Whether I'm working or going out I'm doing it
all for my dogs. |
02:32 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: By 2040, Japan is on track for almost half its
population to be single. This is Unimaru with her new haircut, and this is
Rikomaru. |
02:52 |
|
Sayaka and Rika dress dogs |
Sayaka’s friend Rika is also
choosing a single life. Her dogs are Candy and Vanilla. |
03:03 |
|
Dog
photo shoot |
Photographer: "Good, good… Good, good… Very good. " |
03:11 |
|
Sayaka
and Rika interview |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Do you want to
get married one day? |
03:27 |
|
|
Sayaka: Not particularly. There's
nothing I can’t
do without a man at the moment. |
03:29 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Do you feel any pressure to get married? |
03:38 |
|
|
Sayaka: I'm under a lot of pressure, but I don't mind it. |
03:40 |
|
Dog
photo shoot |
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: Figures from the last fertility survey showed a quarter of women in
their 30s were single and half of them weren’t interested in relationships. |
03:48 |
|
|
Photographer: "Over here." JAKE STURMER, Reporter: I've read a
study that says |
03:55 |
|
Sayaka
and Rika interview |
younger Japanese people are not
necessarily having sex. Is that true?
Sayaka:
That's not true. |
04:04 |
|
|
Rika: It's not that they are disinterested
in sex, but
they don't want to get entangled with other people. |
04:12 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Is there
anything that would convince you to want to get married? Anything you need or you feel like marriage
would offer? |
04:22 |
|
|
Sayaka: I may consider it if my current life is not disrupted too
much, and if it gives me something I’m missing, like if he had a driver's licence. |
04:27 |
|
Sayaka
and Rika walk with dogs in prams |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: In what is still a very
gendered society, more and more people aren’t taking on relationships, and
they aren’t having children. |
04:43 |
|
Tokyo
street GVs, older people |
The face of Japan is changing. Walk around the streets of Tokyo and
you'll see plenty of elderly people, but not too many babies. A few years ago it was called a national crisis. Since
then it’s only got worse. |
04:53 |
|
Jake
visits Naoya |
This is an
intensely private society, but I’ve arranged to meet with another young
professional who’s prepared to open up about the
pressures of living in modern Japan. |
05:13 |
|
|
Jake: "Wow, what a beautiful
room." |
05:26 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Under COVID restrictions 32 year-old Naoya Kudo is working from home. He’s a successful
creative director at a heavy hitting advertising firm, but he also has a work
ethic that’s fairly new in Japan. |
05:32 |
|
Naoya interview |
Naoya: I don’t think many in my generation feel
like they're going to bury their bones in their company forever. |
05:46 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: He works hard and plays hard, and isn’t embracing
the responsibilities that come with marriage and family. |
05:54 |
|
|
"Before you moved in here, you had a
girlfriend, but what happened shortly after? What changed?" |
06:01 |
|
|
Naoya: When you reach this age, your partner will
want to talk about marriage. So we broke up. |
06:06 |
|
Jake
and Naoya look at Instagram posts |
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: He recently made an Instagram star of his grandfather wearing his
high fashion clothes. |
06:20 |
|
|
Naoya: I
hung out with him for the first time in a long time. I counted how many more
times I'd see him while he was alive. I realised I'd probably only see him
two or three more times before he dies. |
06:26 |
|
Naoya looks
through clothing |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Like many successful young people, he loves
living for the moment and spending his money. |
06:39 |
|
|
Naoya: I've worn this to work… This one has a lot of spikes… JAKE STURMER, Reporter: This spikey little number cost around $2,000. |
06:45 |
|
|
Naoya:
It’s a brand called Givenchy. JAKE STURMER, Reporter: What do you like
to do in your spare time? |
06:57 |
|
|
Naoya: I love to drink. I'm going for a
drink with friends now, so do you want to come? |
07:03 |
|
Naoya dresses to go out. Jake and Naoya
leave apartment and head to bar |
Music |
07:09 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: It’s easy to live
single in Tokyo. Almost anything you desire is there day or night. But try
buying a home at unreachable prices, and take on the burden of a family, and
for many it holds as much attraction as a straitjacket. |
07:19 |
|
Naoya
and Jake into bar with friends |
Naoya’s friends
are also trying to find their way. Marriages used to be arranged, now there’s
few guidelines for dating, and people often don’t know how to do it. |
07:36 |
|
|
Ai: That's why I'm single, I don't know how to make
a partner. |
07:50 |
|
|
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: Katsuyuki has just started a
relationship that he found through social media. |
07:57 |
|
|
Katsuyuki: For
me, marriage is not the goal of a relationship. |
08:02 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Would you like
to have children one day? |
08:06 |
|
|
Katsuyuki: I
don’t necessarily think I want them.
|
08:09 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Are you looking
for a partner? Ai: Of course. If there was someone nice, I’d
like to go out with them. But I don’t
think I necessarily have to have a partner. |
08:14 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Naoya does want to get
married – one day, but not yet. |
08:28 |
|
|
"Do
you feel lonely sometimes?" |
08:33 |
|
|
Naoya: I do
quite a bit, but it’s fun drinking with my friends and I’m able to fill in
the loneliness. |
08:25 |
|
Tokyo
high-rise, trains |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Many people are finding it hard to reconcile their
sense of duty with the pressures of modern life; the stress becomes
overwhelming. Suicide rates are at disturbing levels. There’s
few places where people can drop their guard. |
08:54 |
|
Jake
into Hashimoto's café |
This hidden little
cafe has become a refuge for troubled souls. |
09:15 |
|
|
"Which one of these do you like best?" Toru: Mario Kart. |
09:26 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Its owner, Toru Hashimoto used to work at Nintendo. |
09:33 |
|
Toru
sits with café customer |
Now he offers a ready ear to listen to their
troubles. Toru: "How’s
it going?" Client: "It's difficult." Toru: "What? This, life?" Customer: "Life." |
09:37 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Toru was bullied at school, and knows what
it’s like to feel rejected. |
09:49 |
|
|
Toru: "So
you’re home by yourself feeling lonely?" Customer:
"I have a cat." |
09:54 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: There is a stigma attached to mental health
issues, and many of his customers are lost or uncertain. |
10:00 |
|
Jake
sits at bar with Toru |
|
10:08 |
|
Toru
interview |
Toru: There
are many people who are not accepted by society no matter what they do. |
10:13 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Do you think maybe in that
case the old expectations have not necessarily caught up with the modern
freedom?" |
10:21 |
|
|
Toru: That’s what
needs to change, but I think it’ll take a while. Maybe 10 years. |
10:30 |
|
Coastal
town GVs |
Music |
10:45 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Hidden
in the bedrooms of homes across Japan more than a million people have
retreated altogether. |
10:54 |
|
Hidehiro at window |
Hidehiro Shinmasu is one. His bedroom has
been his universe for the best part of twenty years. He’s
now 40 years old. |
11:01 |
|
Jake
visits Hidehiro in
his room |
We’ve been allowed
to visit this very private space. He lives at home, supported
by his parents and has spent
days mentally preparing for our arrival. The problem of shut-ins is so acute in Japan that it has a name –
‘hikikomori’. |
11:12 |
|
|
"What do you do in this room?" Hidehiro: "I read books and watch YouTube. This is a fashion YouTuber named Gengi who looks at
clothing trends." JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: "Please show me." |
11:38 |
|
Hidehiro
and Jake at computer |
Hidehiro spends most of every day touching the
world through this screen. |
11:59 |
|
|
Hidehiro: I like to be involved with people and I can
communicate with many people through the Internet and connect with them. |
12:05 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: His downward spiral began when he couldn’t live up to his family’s
– and society’s – expectations. |
12:18 |
|
Hidehiro
interview |
Hidehiro: I wasn't very athletic or good at sport in
elementary or junior high school, and I wasn't good at studying either, so I
didn't have much self-confidence. I thought I didn't fit in
and I was bad or inferior. |
12:28 |
|
Hidehiro
at computer |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: He felt he’d brought shame on his family.
He was different, in a culture that values conformity. |
12:50 |
|
Hidehiro
interview |
Hidehiro: There
is a lot of peer pressure and homogeneity, and there's not much tolerance for
people who act or live differently. |
13:01 |
|
|
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: Were you able to go out? What was daily life like? |
13:14 |
|
|
Hidehiro: I
felt hopeless. I couldn’t do anything. I really tried but then I couldn’t
work hard anymore. I had no chance of graduating, and that was when I felt
the most hopeless. I started to think about dying. |
13:17 |
|
Room
GVs. Hidehiro reading |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: He wants to feel accepted. |
13:37 |
|
Hidehiro
interview |
"Are you comfortable with this life?" Hidehiro: No, after all I'm 40 years old now, so given
that, it's not okay that I don't fit in with society, but I want society to
come closer to me, and I want it to accept me and be more flexible with me
even if I'm a shut-in. That’s my biggest wish. |
13:46 |
|
Kitakami
drone shots |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: The call for society to be more inclusive
is going out nationwide, from a little city called Kitakami. Seiko: "I think the biggest problem is
the fact that a child is suffering…" |
14:26 |
|
Seiko
in radio studio |
The
parent’s problems and the child’s problems are completely different. |
14:46 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Seiko Gotto has
helped raise the alarm about hikkikomori; she gives advice to those who are
suffering. |
14:51 |
|
|
Seiko: I
always say, the parent needs to be happy and calm down first. |
14:58 |
|
Seiko
makes coffee |
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: She’s been through
the ordeal herself. It took years for her to accept that her son, Masato
could barely leave his room – he was a hikkikomori. Seiko: I really wanted him to study, |
15:12 |
|
Seiko
interview |
to go to a good high school, and to work for a good company, so I told him
to study and study from morning to night, and I think I was a
terrible, terrible
mother. |
15:24 |
|
Masato drinks coffee |
JAKE
STURMER, Reporter: As she struggled, she had some very dark thoughts. Seiko: I
really thought it would be better to kill my son and die myself. |
15:41 |
|
Seiko
interview |
I had raised a person who was of no use to
the world, and I was really devastated about that. |
15:51 |
|
Masato crochets |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Things improved
when she realised it was her problem, and she was the one who had to change. |
16:01 |
|
|
Seiko: People
believe they need to change shut-ins, make them well and work and pay taxes,
but I think it's exactly the opposite. I think society should change so everyone
can live more easily. JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Masoto is uncomfortable
speaking, but agreed to explain his experience. |
16:09 |
|
|
Masoto:
I felt like my individuality was being erased. I didn’t like being forced to
be compliant. |
16:32 |
|
|
Music |
16:40 |
|
Seiko
walking |
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Seiko’s been heard in Tokyo. The government has invited her to help fix the hikikomori problem. |
16:47 |
|
Seiko
interview on street |
Seiko: I
want them to know that being a hikikomori is not special. Whether a person is
a shut-in or not, we’re all human beings. I want them to simply understand
that each person is different. |
16:57 |
|
Government
building/Seiko in meeting |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: But getting these
government health officials to understand isn’t easy; just speaking at the
meeting is a little overwhelming. |
17:13 |
|
|
Seiko: "I’m an ordinary mother, but
I’ve been working closely with my son’s issues. I’m doing a lot of projects… I’m
sorry, I never dreamt I'd have the opportunity to speak here." |
17:21 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Government efforts to stem
negative social trends have so far been ineffective. |
17:39 |
|
Man
sweeping at temple |
For centuries, the
spirit of harmony bound society together. People buried their own needs for
the greater good of the family and community, but loneliness pervades this
populous nation of 125 million. Traditional family bonds were strained with
post-war modernisation. |
17:55 |
|
Highrise
skyline |
As the high speed economy took off, mass housing estates were
built for Western-style nuclear families, and the traditional
multigenerational ties were broken. |
18:18 |
|
Apartment
buildings |
Now the ‘Danchi’
apartments are home to thousands of lonely disconnected
people. More than one third of Japanese homes are single households. By the
end of the decade tens of millions of people will be living on their own. Many are left to die alone – like the 64 year-old
man who lived here. |
18:28 |
|
Masatomi
enters apartment to clean up |
The police have
removed the body, but Masatomi
Yokoo has come to clean up the mess. He wants the solitary dead to be paid due respect. |
18:54 |
|
|
Masatomi:
"Wow! It's in terrible condition." |
19:07 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: The man who died had been an electrical engineer, unable to work
after he had an accident. |
19:27 |
|
|
Masatomi: Many people who die alone have some kind of illness. There’s a lot of medicine. And as
you can see, this person was unable to live normally. He could only eat and
drink, and then he'd throw everything on the floor. I suspect in the end, he couldn’t go to the toilet anymore and he became
weak. But next door, normal life goes on. It’s extraordinary… just inside
this room... |
19:47 |
|
|
This is hard to convey, but this is all
about broken communities. There’s no sense of urgency in this room, but I
think he was really struggling. |
20:38 |
|
Masatomi continues clean up |
Masatomi: Potatoes. JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Potatoes? Masatomi: He was trying to cook something.
He was trying to make curry.
Potato curry. |
21:13 |
|
|
The room is saying 'help me'. The room was
saying 'help me', but he wasn’t saved. |
21:28 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: On average, Masatomi does three or four of
these cleans a week – and every one has an impact. |
21:42 |
|
|
Masatomi: It makes me sad when I work and it’s mentally
tough every day. Even
though this person had family he was discovered late. This
is something that we Japanese, who've always valued connection, should not
allow to happen. |
21:49 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: The man had been
dead for two weeks before his daughter opened the door and made a grisly
discovery. |
22:18 |
|
Daughter
interview outside apartment |
Daughter:
They say when a person dies, there's a powerful smell of death, but that's
not the case. The smell of urine, excrement, and ammonia came blazing out. At
that moment I thought he must have died. That was the last impression I had
of my father, so I didn't want to see any more. |
22:26 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Why do you think so
many elderly people are dying like this? |
22:58 |
|
|
Daughter: They become isolated when their
connections with the community are weak. I think it’s increasing a lot. I actually asked my father to contact me every day whether
it was just good morning or good night, but he was someone who didn’t listen.
|
23:04 |
|
Now
empty apartment. Masatomi closes door |
Music |
23:29 |
|
Warehouse
for sale of good from deceased estates |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Anything the families don’t want comes
here, where it’s cleaned and sold. It’s about all that’s left to mark their
existence. There are no official statistics, but Masatomi reckons it adds up
to around 40,000 people who die alone each year. The underlying problem it
reveals still haunts him. |
23:40 |
|
Masatomi interview |
Masatomi: It’s something
that could happen to anybody including myself. I strongly feel that we need
to have connections with other people. Why don't people see what's going on? |
24:16 |
|
Birds
in evening sky |
Music |
24:38 |
|
Sayaka
and Jake on plane to Okinawa |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Sayaka’s heading to see her family for the first
time in more than three years, and I’ve been invited to meet them. Okinawa is
about as far away from Tokyo as you can get, where the bonds of
family are still tight, and traditional rules go pretty much unquestioned. |
24:48 |
|
Sayaka
and Jake at family home |
Sayaka: "Good evening." Relative: "Welcome home." JAKE STURMER, Reporter: "Good
evening. I'm Jake." |
25:11 |
|
Photo
on wall. Grandfather's birthday gathering |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: The last time the family
came together was for Grandpa Shigeru’s 73rd birthday. "It’s
a big family." Sayaka: Yes big family! Sister, sister. |
25:27 |
|
Family
members prepare meal |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Sayaka’s sisters
are married with children, but didn’t come tonight. Her aunties married
young, and live close by. |
25:41 |
|
Family
at table |
Sayaka:
"Have I become cute?" Shigeru:
"You’ve gained." Sayaka:
"I've gained weight?" |
25:50 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: How nice is it to
see Sayaka-san? |
26:05 |
|
Jake
with Grandfather Shigeru |
Shigeru: I’m happy. She’s
my grandchild. I don’t say it, but in my heart I’m happy. |
26:08 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: What do
you think about the dogs? |
26:24 |
|
|
Shigeru: No… No, no, no, no. |
26:27 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: Sayaka-san
tells us she’s happily single and not interested in marriage or kids. What do
you think about that? Shigeru: I think she’s an idiot. |
26:34 |
|
|
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Grandpa Shigeru doesn’t mince words, And he’s in his element
with his big family around him. |
26:46 |
|
|
Shigeru: I’d be done for if I was left
alone. I’d have a lonely death. It’s like that in the mainland Japan, right?
I see in the news that people left alone even if they have a family. I don’t
want to become like that. |
26:57 |
|
Birthday
celebration for dog |
JAKE STURMER,
Reporter: Sayaka’s aunties hope that one day she’ll bring human children back to
visit – but for now they indulge these kids. It’s Kogemaru’s birthday. |
27:21 |
|
|
Shigeru: "Is this for the dogs? I
don’t get it..." |
27:40 |
|
Jake
and Shigeru |
I personally don’t think more individualism
is good, but there are demands in today's society so
there’s nothing we can do. The population is declining from a low birth rate.
This is bad. The country will perish. |
27:58 |
|
Autumn
foliage |
Music |
28:27 |
|
Jake
drives |
JAKE STURMER, Reporter: This spiritual
land is facing a social crisis. Globalisation and consumerism have brought
prosperity and new freedoms, but they weigh heavily on an ancient complex
culture that’s resisting change. The discord leaves many of its people
struggling, and unable to find a harmonious path in the modern world. |
28:31 |
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Photo. Naoya and grandather.CARD:
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29:40 |
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CREDITS:
Reporter
Jake Sturmer
Producer
Deborah Richards
Japan
Producer
Yumi Asada
Camera
Juntara Ishikawa
Daishi
Kusunoki
Editor
Bernadette Murray
Assistant
Editor
Tom Carr
Archival
Boukheris
Additional
Research
Akane
Furukawa
Senior
Production Manager
Michelle Roberts
Production
Co-ordinator
Victoria Allen
Digital
Producer
Matt Henry
Supervising
Producer
Lisa McGregor
Executive
Producer
Matthew Carney
abc.net.au/foreign
©2022
Australian Broadcasting Corporation