As Japan’s population of elderly continues to rise, the number of isolated people dying unnoticed in their apartments is climbing as well – their bodies often left undiscovered for a long time.

Emerging as early as the 1980s, kodokushi, or “lonely deaths” are becoming a serious problem in Japan, with an estimated three men dying alone every hour. The bodies are sometimes not found for months.

A new RT documentary follows the specialists taking up the gruesome task of cleaning apartments where the bodies are eventually discovered, figures who have a unique insight into the phenomena.

While the companies involved in the work are making a profit, one cleaner describes gathering the deceased’s physical possessions as a “spiritual” way of saying goodbye, allowing the lonely men and women to at least leave someone with their memory.

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