Summary
Overview
Sarah Kay delivers a spoken word performance at TED 2025 exploring loneliness through the lens of Japan's real Minister of Loneliness position, created after suicide rates spiked during COVID-19. She imagines a whimsical world where connection is prioritized over productivity, using the metaphor of tin cans and strings connecting people to combat isolation. Through vivid imagery and poetic storytelling, Kay reflects on human connection, vulnerability, and the importance of meaningful relationships in a complex world filled with both grief and joy.
Japan's Response to the Loneliness Crisis
Sarah Kay opens by sharing the sobering statistic that prompted Japan's creation of a Minister of Loneliness position: in October 2020, more Japanese people died by suicide than had died from COVID-19 throughout all of 2020. This stark reality became the catalyst for a governmental response to address the mental health crisis. Kay uses this real-world event as the launching point for her imaginative exploration of what such a role might entail if taken to its most creative extremes.
- In October 2020, more people in Japan died by suicide than from COVID-19 in all of 2020
- Japan instituted a new government position: Minister of Loneliness
" In the country of Japan in the month of October 2020 more people died by suicide than had died from COVID in all of 2020 up to that point "
The Tin Can Communication System
Kay imagines the Minister of Loneliness abolishing email and installing tin cans with strings on every windowsill, connecting each person to exactly one other person. This whimsical buddy system serves as a metaphor for intentional, reliable human connection. The poet emphasizes that people don't need many connections, just one dependable person who is available when needed, creating a nationwide network of accountability and care.
- The Minister abolishes email and installs tin cans with strings connecting windowsills
- Each person is connected to just one other person through a buddy system
- The buddy must be reliable and available when needed
- Every day becomes a field trip where everyone must be accounted for
- All of Japan becomes interconnected like a ball of string
" each person of course does not need a lot of people to speak to just the one but the one must be reliable, must be available when needed "
" Every day is a field trip to the adulthood museum and we don't go home until everyone has been accounted for "
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