misao tashiro says tashiro left home about 40 years ago, at the age of 63.ld his family he was going to look for a job and never returned. the family has not heard from him since. his family looked for tashiro everywhere, without luck. they've never stopped paying his health insurance fees. >> translator: our feeling is that when he finally comes back we want him to know that we've been waiting for him. we just want to make him happy even a little bit. >> reporter: hachioji city first became aware that kazuo tashiro was missing eight years ago. in 2002 volunteer workers visited his home to do a survey about senior citizens. but the volunteer workers never got to interview tashiro, and they never reported he was missing because it wasn't their job. five years later an employee of the senior citizens department dropped off a gift in honor of tashiro's 100th birthday. misao told the employee that tashiro was missing. the employee recommended that she remove tashiro's name from the registration files. but misao didn't want to. >> translator: to me it wasn't that