無料TOEIC レッスン Lesson 30 : Cities Scrambling to Find Centenarians
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所在が把握できない100歳以上の高齢者が全国の自治体で相次いでいる問題で、大阪市で生存していれば国内最高齢にあたる127歳の男性がいることが、市関係者への取材でわかった。男性は住民基本台帳上、同市西成区に居住。市が100歳以上の高齢者の所在確認を進めるなかで、介護給付費の支給実績がなかったことから所在不明が判明した。市は13日に所在確認の調査結果を発表する予定。
この高齢者の所在不明問題で、朝日新聞が12日までに全国すべての市区町村に取材したところ、各自治体が把握している100歳以上の不明者は少なくとも279人にのぼることがわかった。兵庫県112人、大阪府88人、京都府21人、東京都13人など大都市部に集中しており、東北や北陸などの26県は一人もいなかった。都市部の多くの自治体は、介護保険などの利用が無い人を直接訪問して確認した。
Lesson 30: Cities Scrambling to Find Centenarians / VIDEO Script
Al:
John, what do think about the case of the 111 year old pensioner who turned out to have been dead for about 30 years.
John:
It’s no surprise. When you keep the records on paper in city hall or the ward office and depend on volunteers to look for these people while being careful not to break the privacy laws, you’re going to have problems keeping track of people, especially elderly people.
Al:
Yes, and the efforts to move records of the population to a centralised computer have been resisted by unions representing city hall and ward office workers. Maybe we should put GPS trackers on the centenarians….but no, that would be against the privacy laws too.
John:
I am sure it would be, but we don’t want to be paying pensions to dead people either. Improvements are needed to prevent that. And who knows, maybe Japan’s claim to have over 41,000 centenarians is overstated and the life expectancy rates are skewed a little too high.
Al:
I doubt that the numbers are that far off! But we can’t expect dead centenarians to send the government death certificates either. John, do you want me to keep tabs on you as you near the century mark?
John:
Haha. I am not that old! And you’re no spring chicken yourself, Al!
Al:
Is there such a thing as a half centenarian?
John:
Of course!
Questions:
- What did Al ask John?
- What he thought about paying pensions to 111 year old dead people?
- How soon he would be 111 years old.
- How long the 111 year old pensioner had been missing.
- What did the 111 year old pensioner turn out to be.
- What was John’s response to this question?
- He was surprised that they were having so much trouble.
- He was not surprised given the use of paper records and volunteers to look for the centenarians while abiding by the strict privacy laws.
- He was surprised that a country as advanced as Japan could not keep track of its elderly citizens.
- He suggested that families of centenarians should be responsible to provide annual proof that an elderly family member is still alive, such as a doctor’s certificate.
- Why did Al say that moving records of the population to a centralised computer has not been achieved?
- Because there are no centralized computers big enough to store all the personal data.
- Because it is against the privacy laws.
- Because such efforts have been resisted by unions representing city hall and ward office workers.
- Because it is necessary to keep the paper supply companies in business.
- How did Al react to John’s comment that Japan’s claim to have over 41,000 centenarians might be overstated and the life expectancy rates skewed a little too high?
- Al said that he doubted that the numbers could be so far off.
- Al agreed with John.
- Al said that John could check the numbers in his spare time.
- Al said that dead centenarians should be required to send in death certificates.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xebykh_japan-searches-for-missing-centenar_news
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