Loneliness at Older Ages in Japan: Lonely Life Expectancy and the Role of Social Isolation

Shiro Furuya () and James M. Raymo
Additional contact information
Shiro Furuya: Harvard University
James M. Raymo: Princeton University

Population Research and Policy Review, 2025, vol. 44, issue 5, No 4, 25 pages

Abstract: Abstract Loneliness is the focus of growing media, policy, and research attention, but remains an understudied dimension of social inequality among demographers and other social scientists. This study examines the duration of exposure to loneliness at older ages in Japan, the world’s oldest country. Analyses conceptually and methodologically account for the related, but distinct, concept of social isolation. Combining life tables from the Human Mortality Database with individual data from the National Survey of Japanese Elderly, we used Sullivan’s method to calculate lonely life expectancy (LLE) and isolation-adjusted LLE by sex, region of residence, and educational attainment. LLE at age 60 was 2.4–2.7 years for Japanese men and 4.1–5.0 years among women. These sex differences became less pronounced after accounting for social isolation, especially family-related aspects of isolation. We found no clear regional or educational differences in (isolation-adjusted) LLE. In contrast to public perceptions of growing loneliness, we found that (isolation-adjusted) LLE is relatively short among older Japanese and has not increased over time.

Keywords: Loneliness; Social isolation; Older people; Life expectancy; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11113-025-09971-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:44:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1007_s11113-025-09971-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... es/journal/11113/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11113-025-09971-1

Access Statistics for this article

Population Research and Policy Review is currently edited by D.A. Swanson

More articles in Population Research and Policy Review from Springer, Southern Demographic Association (SDA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().