Isolate the problem Japan has appointed a Minister for Loneliness. Why is loneliness a global malaise if human company is just a click away? The French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, was wrong. Hell is not other people, but the lack thereof. Social isolation and the resultant loneliness are more lethal than smoking 15 cigarettes a day or obesity, according to research published by Brigham Young University. Some researchers even say that loneliness increases heart disease, dementia and death rates. The pandemic has turned a bad situation worse, with some studies showing as much as a 90 per cent rise in loneliness globally. Public health experts in many countries have been debating how to address the “loneliness epidemic” that confronts and corrodes modern life. Japan, where suicide rates shot up precariously during the pandemic, has now appointed a Loneliness Minister, following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, which in 2018 became the first country to create a similar cabinet position. This is a welcome move: a ministry of loneliness should accord gravity to a mental health concern. But the British experience also shows that ministering loneliness can be a rather lonely occupation with tokenism triumphing over meaningful policy — the unwillingness to implement the suggestions offered by Britain’s loneliness ministry since its inception is indicative of a deeper, troubling institutional and public apathy.