I found your article interesting.

Here is what I felt: First of all, material poverty and spiritual poverty are different. I think the reason for the weak human relationships is because you mainly lived in urban areas of Japan. In rural areas of Japan, neighbors are more likely to interact with each other, but there is also a negative side to this, where people keep an eye on each other. My mother was born into a poor family in the countryside, and after graduating from high school, she moved to a place near Tokyo, relying on her older brother who had already moved there. Now she says that life in the city is the best; in the countryside, people are always gossiping about each other, and she feels suffocated.

In the past, when everyone was materially poor, ties with family, relatives, and neighbors were everything. If you don't help someone, no one will help you when you're in trouble. So this is not because you have a kind heart, but simply because you are kind to others in order to survive. On the other hand, the countryside, where human relationships are close, has negative aspects such as rude men and women who only gossip about others, and my mother apparently disliked such countryside. This is not a phenomenon unique to Japan, but is probably the same anywhere in the world. Compared to the time when neighbors had to support each other to survive, we are now in an era where the government takes over the lives of neighbors by providing health insurance and pensions. This is a big step forward, but it also has a negative side, as it can lead to estrangement from family and neighbors. I felt that a hint for preventing lonely deaths could be found in public housing in Singapore. The first floor of the apartment building is a cheap food court, so even elderly people living alone can come there every day, which creates interactions with other people living in the same apartment building.