This is a sad fact of life even for us foreigners who choose to live out our lives here.

This story somewhat hit home with me. Since my wife's mother needed assistance we moved back to Japan.
Now we are up their in age and sad to say, no one, just us two. Our daughter lives in America and has her own family now and having her move here, well it's just not going to happen.
This is really a wake up call maybe for some of us. I remember in the military some soldiers married their girlfriends and talked about them not having any relationship with their families. I always wondered what would take place in their life one day.
Have a read.

A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death - The New York Times

This was a very beautiful, haunting, and moving piece.

Yes a very impactful article. Makes you think.

I suppose you could move back to the U.S. but maybe impossible without the society safety net you would need. Especially health insurance.

The same issue exists here too but with Japan's aged, long-lived society I'm sure it's more extreme there. And probably people can manage to live alone "independently" in a danchi for longer. Here healthy elderly live in single-family homes and need cars for transportation so it's more difficult to live alone indefinitely with all the upkeep required.

I was at a local hospital last week and was waiting for a CT (outside one of three rooms with those machines) (and, hey, nothing too serious). It wasn't busy, but ahead of me in the queue was an older woman, looked to be about 90, in a wheelchair. Very frail and thin, and looked like she might be an ongoing resident/inpatient at this place.

Over about ~15 minutes as I waited there, the only thing she said (in a weak voice) was ひどい, maybe every 15-30 seconds, again and again.

Jesus...

Sad, yeah, no family at her side, but I also don't know all the conditions.

The orderly with her talked to her a couple different times, trying to comfort her. I'm not sure if sitting in a wheelchair was what she was talking about, or if it was something else about her condition, and I'm not sure what that was.

I truly hope that I check out before reaching that stage/state.

The same demographic change that is behind this situation in Japan is also happening in Korea, China, and Taiwan. It's just that in those countries it'll take a few years or more before the impact hits home.

Japan is fortunate to have achieved its present level of development before this unfolded--Taiwan and Korea might be okay, but China will not be so lucky.

tl;dnr -- in 2030, the world will likely be very different.

I think and feel that today's kids have to many conveniences and "inconvenience" is lost in their character.