More than 230,000 Japanese centenarians 'missing'

Summary

September 10, 2010: In Japan, a nation renowned for its longevity, it has been discovered that as many as 230,000 people over the age of 100 years are unaccounted for. An inquiry was started after officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato, the allegedly oldest man in the Tokyo area, for is 111st birthday and discovered his 30 year old mummified remains. Some are unaccounted for because the record are incomplete, as it is the case with many who died during World War II. However, it is suspected that pension fraud frequently is the culprit - relatives often don't announce the death of an elderly relative so that they are able to draw upon their pension payments.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• Of course, "pension fraud" is just a smokescreen. The real problem is that evil spirits are kidnapping old people for inscrutable purposes - and the Japanese government doesn't want to admit that they can't deal with the problem…
• Alternatively, perhaps this part of a super-secret euthanasia project - the government (or another organization) are afraid of the steadily aging Japanese population and are thus trying to kill off old people to improve the demographics and make the Japanese population younger (and thus, more productive).