Government officials in Japan have discovered that 230,000 elderly citizens are missing. How can this be?
The Japanese government ordered an audit of family registries after they found the body of a man they had thought was the oldest man in Tokyo. They had gone to his home to congratulate him on his 111th birthday. When they got there they found only his mummified remains. The family is being charged with fraud for claiming his pension checks for 30 years.
The audit found that several hundred of the missing would be over 150 years old if they were still alive. The Japanese Ministry of Justice believes that there are three possible causes for the discrepancy in the population figures. Many people might have died just after World War 2 and their deaths were not reported in chaotic time after that, others might have emigrated and not told the authorities, or the families just didn’t report their deaths.
According to official figures Japan has over 40,000 centenarians, but the discovery of all these missing people casts doubt on the figure. The government continues to investigate the issue as there is now a concern that dishonest relatives are exploiting the welfare system.
Listen to the article Japan Loses 230,000 Citizens
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Vocabulary for Japan Loses 230,000 Citizens
Citizen – A person who belongs to a country is a citizen of that country.
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Audit – When a independent person checks the truth of facts about an organisation we say they do an audit of the organisation. We usually use audit when we are talking about company financial accounts.
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The annual audit uncovered some serious problems with the bank’s accounts
Mummified – When a dead body is dried so that it does not go bad it is mummified. The most famous examples are the mummies of ancient Eygpt.
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Fraud – Stealing money by lying is called fraud.
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Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the world’s biggest fraud.
Pension check / cheque – The regular money people get when they are old and stop working.
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Discrepancy – If something is different from what we expected or what was written down then there is a discrepancy.
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I’ve discovered a discrepancy in the cash till. According to the sales receipts we should have $950, but there’s only $840. You didn’t borrow any cash, did you?
Emigrate – If you go and live in another country and become a citizen we say that you emigrate to that country.
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I hate the weather here! I want to emigrate to Australia.
The authorities – The government and government officials.
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Centenarian – A person who is 100 years old or older is called a centenarian.
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Cast doubt on – If you cast doubt on something or someone you say that something about it or them might not be true.
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I don’t want to cast doubt on your honesty, but yesterday you said you hadn’t got any money, yet today you are drinking champagne!
Exploit – If you use someone in a way that is unfair or dishonest you exploit them.
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Bernard Madoff exploited people’s greed to get them to invest in his company.
