A medical journalist’s firsthand account of her battle with terminal cancer shows hope for a new era of “one-person” illnesses.

2025-01-15

One day, I received a postcard from the insurance company saying something like, “Please call us if you are diagnosed with cancer,” so I called them.

It cost about 7,000 yen to order the medical certificate, but I thought I could write this in the manuscript anyway, so I ordered the medical certificate and sent it to them, and they remitted 1 million yen. I didn’t know anything about insurance because I had left it to my ex-wife, but when I contacted the insurance agency, they explained it to me in detail. They were really helpful.

Fighting illness alone…and starting “life after death” at the same time

Even though he is basically healthy, there are of course some things he can no longer do. In addition to steadily advancing “seeing the people I want to see,” he retired from his hobbies of skiing, marathon running, and grass baseball one after another, especially after bone metastasis, as he was prone to osteoporosis due to the side effects of hormone treatment, and “bone fractures” were his worst enemy.

He also retired from the chorus group he had been a member of since 1996 after singing the “Ninth” at a concert in October 2011, watched by friends and colleagues. Immediately after that, she cut her hair and began anti-cancer drug treatment.

Mr. Nagata speaks frankly about his “one-man” battle with the disease, saying, “I’m glad I’m single.

The good thing about being single is that I don’t have to worry. Especially in my case, my second wife was a nurse, and I think it would have been helpful if she had been there, but on the other hand, if I had had a wife, I would have been worried, so I am glad that the cancer was discovered after my divorce. Besides, if I had had children, I would have had a hard time worrying about what would happen afterwards, so that was a good thing.

At the same time, Mr. Nagata also began his “life after death” activities. He asked a lawyer to help him with his postmortem plans and wishes, and received the following advice.

Keep your bank accounts in a single account as much as possible.
Cash out stock holdings as soon as possible.
Write your own will while you can, since it must be handwritten.
Specify the attorney’s share in the will.

While solemnly proceeding with end-of-life planning, there is also, of course, persistence.

‘I was told to cash out my stocks, but I haven’t done that yet. Some of the stocks I own are on the rise, and I’m not sure if I should sell them now. Besides, my air conditioner broke down, and although I was unsure about it, I had no choice but to buy it to get through the recent extreme heat. I also bought a humidifier.

I still have a lot of things I want to do. I went to Hong Kong, which I love, twice last year and plan to go again this year in March. From now on, I would like to focus only on the work I want to do.

The living needs rider for life expectancy of six months (when a doctor determines that the insured person has six months or less to live, the insured person can receive all or part of the death benefit as a specified condition benefit) also came down and 9 million yen was transferred to my account, so I thought I could splurge a little, but I was surprised that I could not spend it.

So I thought I could spend some of it, but I couldn’t spend it as I had expected. I bought two frozen fried rice dishes, and that was the most I could spend. I’ve always been a stingy eater, so I can’t suddenly spend extravagantly.

Although he says he will not have a funeral, there is one thing he is looking forward to in the future.

I’m going to ask some of my good friends who are editors to hold a “party to send off Shoji Osada. I am planning to make a commemorative magazine to be distributed at that time, and the editor in charge of the magazine has been chosen. I am looking forward to the editing process, and the photo shoot for the photogravure is underway.

Mr. Nagata continues to live his days positively and cheerfully, and has many things to look forward to in the future. This new generation of “battle chronicles” that overturns the conventional image of “terminal cancer” is likely to become a source of hope for those who are fighting the disease, their families, and those who have vague fears about the disease.