Ageing population is a crisis in Japan but the whole world knows how the Japanese have the most unique solutions to their everyday problems. This incident that recently went viral speaks about an elderly woman from Japan who deliberately commits crimes to stay in prison for free. When asked why, her reason has shocked the Internet. Read for yourself.
Akiyo, an 81-year-old Japanese woman has been reportedly committing crimes, a low as stealing food, just to secure a ‘free stay’ in prison. Astonished? Yes, the woman has been jailed twice till now because her survival has become difficult on the pension amount she receives. At first, she was jailed at the age of 60 for shoplifting food and she repeated the crime a few years later. But why? Loneliness. That’s her reason. Akiyo has been abandoned by her 43-year-old son and has been struggling with her survival since. Yes, Akiyo feels, “staying at prison is preferable to dying alone outside.”
Twice, Akiyo has been jailed in Japan’s largest women’s prison located in Tokyo, called the Tochigi Women’s Prison. The woman finds home in the 500 other inmates most of whom are her fellow elderly women. After being released following her first term, Akiyo struggled with shame and fear of her son’s judgment. Her crime was a matter of ignorance since she thought ‘shoplifting would be a minor issue’ and made a poor decision. But soon after feeling financially stable and experiencing a comfortable lifestyle, she thought she would be better off staying in prison than being humiliated by society and her own son. Perhaps that’s the reason, she went on to repeat the same crime, or maybe it’s hunger and survival.
However, Akiyo definitely would not have done it had she been more stable, her pension was not as meager, or was happy with her son. Just imagine! Despite having a family, the elderly woman has become so alone and helpless, that she finds her safe space in her prison mates. She says, “There are very good people in this prison. Perhaps this life is the most stable for me.” Unfortunate but true!
