Tale of Tokyo rats causes dismay
Date: 02-Jul-04
Country: JAPAN
The problem has prompted the city to launch a probe into how rodents affect elderly people.
"Rats are rampant, particularly in the homes of elderly people living alone," one Tokyo metropolitan government official said yesterday.
"We have to do something about this because most of the elderly people can't cope with it by themselves."
Tokyo officials said they had received 17,388 complaints - many from the elderly - about rats in the 12 months to March 2004, a jump from 10,000 five years ago.
The officials said rats tended to find their niche in homes where elderly people live because food is often left out.
A survey in 2002 showed that about 14 percent of all households in the nation's capital were comprised of elderly residents and more than half of those lived alone.
"Rats have made a nest in my 'futon' bedding," the Yomiuri newspaper quoted one distressed senior citizen as saying.
"They just crawl in and out at will."
