Loneliness, Urban Individualism, and the Social Infrastructure of Care: A Comparative Analysis of Aging Societies in Japan and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Loneliness has become a major social humanities problem linking demography, urban life, care systems, mental health, public policy, and democratic belonging. This article examines loneliness in aging societies through a comparative analysis of Japan and the United Kingdom. Both countries face demographic aging, household fragmentation, declining community participation, and growing policy concern over social isolation, yet they differ in family norms, welfare institutions, urban form, cultural expectations of independence, and public narratives of care. Drawing on sociology, human geography, aging studies, public policy, ethics of care, and cultural theory, this article argues that loneliness should not be understood primarily as an individual psychological deficit but as an institutional and spatial condition produced through weakened social infrastructure, changing family relations, precarious work, and uneven access to care. Japan illustrates loneliness through the phenomena of single-person aging, urban anonymity, community decline, and policy concern with social withdrawal and solitary death. The United Kingdom illustrates loneliness through austerity-era welfare pressures, fragmented local services, and policy institutionalization through national loneliness strategies. The article contributes to social humanities scholarship by developing a comparative framework linking social infrastructure, care ethics, urban belonging, and aging citizenship.