Sugamo is known as a haven for the elderly in Tokyo.
Here is the true face of modern Japan, the most aged society in the world. In Sugamo, far from the streets of futuristic Shibuya is Jizo Dori, a shopping area popular with the elderly and in its own way, a glimpse of Japan’s future. People under the age of 50 stand out in a sea of grey heads, many in wheelchairs, who visit the area to buy health food and cheap clothes, and pray at the neighbourhood temple for a healthy life. Signs for AED defibrillators are a common sight and that bastion of youth, Hello Kitty, is even featured with her bespectacled grand parents.