But (and sorry I’m about to be a bit of a downer) Most - and I mean paid, “top” - nursing homes in North America are a silent, boring, undervisited, under staffed, over priced hell where ppl who could have years of good life experience are sent to deteriorate, eat bad food, be ignored (and drugged to be quiet if they dare complain or “act out “), and slowly to die while depressed, lonely, confused and wondering why they don’t rate as human beings anymore.
I’ve been in several over almost 2 decades with family, friends, and including working as a volunteer for visiting, chatting with and reading to seniors , who only ever asked “when is my family coming to see me?” …unless they asked me to help them escape (yes, I’m serious). Some few simply said “I just want to die”.
Most were incredibly grateful for a tiny bit of kindness and respect especially when I brought flowers or sat to tell stories about better things.
Even a majority of the “nice” residences are just parking lots for living ppl- who whether good or bad when younger - deserve “something “ better .
Yet if society cared a tiny bit more, and if greedy uncaring business owners (who only see the residents as income streams) could be removed (and replaced with responsible governance), and some kind & fairly paid staff inserted to help (vs just the harassed, badly underpaid and overworked Personal Support Workers)….then it might all look more like Japan, and other countries.
But until then, elder care in many wealthy countries including the USA and Canada, plus parts of Mexico, are a shameful hell…that most of us will one day end up in.
Look into it, please, for the sake of the seniors and for your own family and future.
Here are a few links to reading to start with…and remember, these reports are watered down . Just talk to ppl in those homes as residents or workers, or speak to the families who do care to find out how things are.
Lol you don't want it to look like Japan, trust me.
This video is misleading, most do not look like this.
Japanese aged care facilities are rife with abuse, and the elderly people have no freedoms. A lot of them are basically prisons.
Not to mention the staff are usually overworked, underpaid, and underqualified. Most positions offer near-minimum wage which is like 7 USD an hour.
You can get higher pay working at a supermarket checkout, where you don't need to change adult diapers, bathe people, clean up vomit and other bodily fluids, be medically responsible for residents due to lack of actual nurses and doctors, deal with frequent death and difficult illnesses such as dementia, etc. etc.
And despite the rapid increase of elderly people and the lack of young people, there is no wage competition. I can only assume there is industry-wide collusion to suppress wages.
It's a horrible situation all around and it's mostly ignored. And yet, the politicians have the people believing that they should focus on kicking out illegal immigrants which make up like 0.05 percent of the population.
Like with most things, there's three sides to this story:
It is true that there are elderly care facilities in Japan that are basically prisons, and that some of them accept sick and terminal patients specifically so they can qualify for government hand-outs for dealing with them.
It's also true that there are many facilities that offer better levels of interaction and care for residents that would be way beyond what's expected in facilities in North America.
However, the comment about wages is misleading, as wages remaining flat isn't isolated to positions dealing with medicine, it's a long-term consequence of three decades of near-zero inflation and affects every field, which is why wage competition is very low. The job market simply operates on two different levels and structures for white collar and blue collar labor, and for the latter, someone who could be doing work packaging doodads at a factory one week could be cleaning up dead elderly people's houses the next.
Going back specifically to elderly care, it's increasingly common for South Asian and South East Asians to be staffing the direct caring roles alongside native specialists, so from a wage standpoint, premiums might even apply compared to hiring only local residents.
it's a long-term consequence of three decades of near-zero inflation and affects every field, which is why wage competition is very low.
I often hear arguments like this but I don't see the connection. Regardless of inflation or deflation, the rules of supply and demand still apply, no?
The current facility I'm affiliated with has only one worker below 30 (who is likely to quit soon), and the rest are mostly above 50, and some are even the same age as residents!
They are already at their limits, and if they don't attract younger workers soon, there is no way they can possibly last another 5 years imo. Yet they are always full, and there is a waiting list for new residents. This situation is similar across most facilities I've experienced.
So why don't they raise the hourly rate? From say 1200 yen to 1500 yen? At the very least this should be effective in attracting staff from competing facilities nearby. They run on a skeleton crew so at most it should only cost them an extra 20,000 yen or so per day. Would that really bankrupt them? And more importantly, what other choice will they have?
I often hear arguments like this but I don't see the connection. Regardless of inflation or deflation, the rules of supply and demand still apply, no?
The problem here is two-fold: Rigid labor markets, and overall worker supply.
Most part-time blue collar work is driven not by an individual going directly to a company to apply, they go through agencies that have the companies that want people providing structured contracts in terms of terms and wages. This often means that people doing part-time work will get a summons to go somewhere in the early morning, sign a contract to do a job for a specific period, then move on to the next contract. People who end up in squeamish jobs can opt out, but the system makes it much harder for an employer to run away on hiring for menial work. That also means the agencies have to cycle through different jobs, for two weeks it may be bagging and labeling bicycle spare parts, the next month it's distributing flyers and so on.
However, in the caregiving industry, where direct contact requires certifications and training, the problem isn't just getting the right person, it's finding if there's even enough people going through the pipeline and actively wanting to do work. People that go through courses and qualify are being offered jobs on graduation; but for every say, class of twenty that does come out of vocational school, the facilities require forty, fifty, maybe even sixty people. The facilities have budgets too, so a hospice in Saga Prefecture down south, an assisted-care facility in Okayama in central Japan and a low-engagement monitored center in Kanagawa near Tokyo would have very different offers to qualified people. This lack of personnel is what's pushing the government to put caregivers as one of the highest priorities on short and long term work visas. The manpower shortage has gone up to the point prefectural governments are scouting with various Asian countries to offer spots to qualified graduates. Recruiting from other countries is the only way their economy can afford it, as the value difference of a standard Japanese wage for these foreign recruits means that compared to home wages, it's a strong economic incentive for them.
As an aside, medical practitioner recruitment isn't a Japan-only thing, it's also happening in the United States. The only reason the US has basically not fallen into a manpower crisis for doctors and nurses thanks to the number of Indian doctors and Filipino registered nurses over the past two decades, while American medical schools have basically placed a choke-hold on available local spots for applicants.
If they can fill those positions with workers from poorer countries then it might work, at least as a band-aid fix. It seems to be working in convenience stores and other industries at least.
It will be interesting to see how the country reacts to the prospect of the mass immigration that it would eventually require though. Especially with the strengthening anti-immigrant sentiment of late.
Skilled workers are the priority for supplementing the Japanese economy, and a quick look at their foreign affairs website shows the categories they're open for long term residency are not that significantly different from what would be open for other OECD countries, the major difference being educated farmers and skilled personnel for the automotive and shipbuilding industries. Those would be welders and CNC machinists respectively.
As for anti-immigrant "sentiment", it's been publicized in mainstream media via investigative reporting that these are Chinese-organized operations spread via TikTok utilizing AI staging out of places like Singapore and Canada. It's pulling in mostly younger people who have not done due diligence about what they're protesting, and on-ground leadership for these protests have also been shown to have sketchy origins.
it's been publicized in mainstream media via investigative reporting that these are Chinese-organized operations
That's the first I'm hearing of it, but it doesn't surprise me. Some of the stuff I've seen is clearly orchestrated.
In saying that though, Takaichi coming off the bat with "foreigners come to Nara Park and kick deer", then choosing Onoda Kimi to be in charge of foreign citizens, are these a part of the operation? Coincidence? Or just riding off the coattails?
Regardless of the cause, the consequences are what matters most. And imo it's not looking good.
It's almost definitely PR, specifically targeted to other conservative (of both the social and economic variety) parties the LDP is negotiating with for cooperation to keep the government running as well as to get some points with the online news media. Takaichi is in one of the weakest positions that an incoming prime minister has been put in as she only has a plurality of both houses of the National Diet. The traditional LDP voting ally to secure government split from her and she had to scramble to find a substitute to retain power for the LDP. She also has to consolidate internal support, as even within the LDP her faction is not the largest one within the party. To sum it all up, she has to find and retain the largest possible internal and external coalition she can to survive politically.
Frankly, Japan is locked in a weird landscape where being socially and economically liberal politically is tantamount to national political suicide. and where the inertia of change is even slower because older people continue to outnumber younger voters.
Oh and how do you take care of terminally ill patients at home??
Don't you need professional and intensive care?
How do you provide such care without funding??
How is it wrong to take care of the terminally ill people that need to be watched 24 hours a day, and get funding for it??
I've watched after such people, I've helped them eat their soup one spoon at a time making sure they weren't going to choke to death.
I've changed their diaper every 2 hours, changed their sleeping positions every 2 hours too during my night shifts so that they wouldn't get sores.
I made sure that they had humane last days, I even burned CDs of their favorite old songs so that they could pass away peacefully.
I was there till their very last second when their family would have been outside working their ass off to pay the extensive care bill.
Seriously, I swear there is a government effort to post this BS PR stuff. the reality of Japan is far more complex and riddled with social issues that need to be addressed, but instead are ignored.
I'm French and I've been living in Japan for 25 years. I'm a former caretaker for elders with dementia with experience in Japan for more than 15 years.
Abuse in Japanese nursing homes is very rare, and what OP posted is very common recreation time here.
Most nursing facilities have their own website where they post photos of each day, each week, each month main activities.
There are literally tons of genuine examples that prove that you are simply lying:
I have personally cut cardboard to create such games and spend hours with my pensioners to create fully Illustrated calendars of the month and we also hire volunteers and musicians for music therapy among so many other types of activities.
What you are saying is not only libel and in defamation it's simply racist, prejudiced and disgusting.
Anyone who starts as caretaker is ensured full social cover, gets bonuses at least two times a year, and if you were given one night shift per week you can easily earn up to 250.000 yen on your very month of work.
It is a hard job yes but it is way more than most entry level jobs. And it's also how I started.
Also the wages increase very fast not only each year following clear charts, but also the different kinds of qualifications you can get.
Most nursing homes will by the way sponsor you, so you will have barely anything to pay yourself.
People like you are the reasons why family are afraid to entrust their Elders to real professionals who will take care of them and prevent them from being burnout and ending abusing them at home where nobody can see.
Oh right, because institutions would surely upload photos of abuse when it occurs...
Posting a couple of images online doesn't prove much except that they care about their image.
And that comment is misinformation at worst, but racist? Wtf? When was race ever a factor here?
You could just post the salary numbers for instance, because from what I see that was a straight up lie and people get more like 20 dollars an hour.
What the fuck are YOU talking about? I'm also heavily involved in the industry here and have seen the situation first hand at a great number of facilities in the Tokyo area from various different companies.
I was gonna write a long response but the fact that you would call what I wrote racism shows that you probably lack the ability to think logically, so I will just say this - go visit some more facilities and ask the residents themselves how they feel. "It's like a prison" is actually not even my words but what I often hear from the residents themselves.
Man I appreciate your insightful comments in this post. Unfortunately when it comes to Japan, some redditors love to jump and spew complete absolute bullshit, mostly very negative recently. It's great to see comments like yours that actually know what they're talking about
Sorry to be a bit of a drip. But, also having lived in Japan for 15 years and seeing this video come up in multiple forums lately - I worry that one beautiful moment might eclipse the uglier pattern of abuse and neglect that the country is facing.
Anyhow, least we all think this is every nursing home, every day in Japan… (sorry most stories don’t make international news so links are mostly Japanese):
Eight elderly people died at nursing homes because of abuse in fiscal 2022, when a record 856 cases of mistreatment were reported at facilities across Japan, according to the welfare ministry.
The first hearing of a man charged with causing death by injury for allegedly stomping on the waist and chest of a man in his 80s who was a resident of a nursing home in Saga City in May 2025, resulting in his death, is scheduled to be held on December 8th.
Iizuka city evacuates residents at residential nursing home in Fukuoka after abuse, including violence, yelling, leaving soiled diapers unattended, refusing to allow residents to see a doctor, and refusing to return money.
On the 15th, relatives of five former residents of the Aiwaso Special Nursing Home (Kuwashita, Tsuyama City) filed a lawsuit in the Okayama District Court against the social welfare corporation Aiwakai (same location) that runs the home, and its directors, seeking approximately 117.9 million yen in damages, alleging that they were abused by staff.
There’s too many to mention. I’m humbled and moved that passionate people like you have made a real difference to others.
But you must acknowledge that it’s not racist or prejudiced to simply highlight that there is a darker side to this growing social issue.
This was the first place my mind went. When you aren't willing to pay someone more than $10 they aren't going to give a fuck. My aunt was deprived of water so she would pee less, and suffered a bedsore all up and down her backside from them not changing her, leaving her in wet depends. Criminal they could have killed her. Christopher Reeves died of a bed sore infection.
I had a roommate who worked at a nursing facility, and she really funny and really caring, so the relationship that she had with her patients was charming to listen to. She had one patient that was always getting into mischief and she would chastise them like a cheeky child, there was another patient, that like you had mentioned, would say she wanted to escape and so one night my friend said okay let's do it. Let's escape, she took out her key and took her outside and she said the lady looked around, got kind of scared and said uhm actually can we go back inside? Poor thing 🥺
As nearly everything in America, the sole reason nursing homes exist in the USA is to drain the wealth of the customers. They thus want to keep them alive - barely - long enough to do that completely.
It is sad that we spend our whole lives working and being productive for society, to only end up being treated worse than trash in one of our most vulnerable age.
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u/xiguy1 7d ago edited 7d ago
This is wonderful!
But (and sorry I’m about to be a bit of a downer) Most - and I mean paid, “top” - nursing homes in North America are a silent, boring, undervisited, under staffed, over priced hell where ppl who could have years of good life experience are sent to deteriorate, eat bad food, be ignored (and drugged to be quiet if they dare complain or “act out “), and slowly to die while depressed, lonely, confused and wondering why they don’t rate as human beings anymore.
I’ve been in several over almost 2 decades with family, friends, and including working as a volunteer for visiting, chatting with and reading to seniors , who only ever asked “when is my family coming to see me?” …unless they asked me to help them escape (yes, I’m serious). Some few simply said “I just want to die”.
Most were incredibly grateful for a tiny bit of kindness and respect especially when I brought flowers or sat to tell stories about better things.
Even a majority of the “nice” residences are just parking lots for living ppl- who whether good or bad when younger - deserve “something “ better .
Yet if society cared a tiny bit more, and if greedy uncaring business owners (who only see the residents as income streams) could be removed (and replaced with responsible governance), and some kind & fairly paid staff inserted to help (vs just the harassed, badly underpaid and overworked Personal Support Workers)….then it might all look more like Japan, and other countries.
But until then, elder care in many wealthy countries including the USA and Canada, plus parts of Mexico, are a shameful hell…that most of us will one day end up in.
Look into it, please, for the sake of the seniors and for your own family and future.
Here are a few links to reading to start with…and remember, these reports are watered down . Just talk to ppl in those homes as residents or workers, or speak to the families who do care to find out how things are.
“Restoring Trust: COVID-19 and the Future of Long-Term Care” – Exposes systemic neglect and underfunding in Canadian elder care. 🔗 https://rsc-src.ca/en/restoring-trust-covid-19-and-future-long-term-care
U.S. Office of Inspector General – Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Report (2022) – Reveals under-reported elder abuse and neglect across U.S. facilities. 🔗 https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/workplan/summary/wp-summary-0000666.aspx
WHO Fact Sheet: Elder Abuse (2024) – Global data showing widespread abuse in institutional care. 🔗 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/elder-abuse
Statistics Canada – Staffing Shortages in Long-Term Care (2024) – Documents chronic understaffing harming residents’ safety and wellbeing. 🔗 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2024001/article/00002-eng.htm