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Japan on "alert"/ Over 10% of the population, more than 80 years old

2023-09-18 14:38:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Japanese government has raised the alarm about the aging population.

According to data, more than 10% of Japan's population is 80 years old or older.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the proportion of Japan's elderly, defined as age 65 and over, is also at a record high, accounting for 29.1% of the population.

The ministry released the figures to mark Respect for the Elderly Day, a public holiday in the country, which also faces a falling birth rate and shrinking workforce that could affect pension and health care funding as population figures in old age they grow.

Japan's population has been in steady decline since its economic boom in the 1980s, with a birth rate of 1.3% well below the 2.1% needed to maintain a stable population, absent immigration. Deaths have outpaced births in Japan for more than a decade, posing a growing problem for leaders of the world's third-largest economy.

The country is known for its longevity, contributing to the growing elderly population.

To cope with a growing labor shortage and in hopes of revitalizing a stagnant economy, the Japanese government has encouraged more elderly people and stay-at-home mothers to re-enter the workforce in the past decade.

To some extent, this message has worked. There are now a record 9.12 million older workers in Japan, a number that has increased for 19 consecutive years.

Workers aged 65 and over now make up more than 13% of the national workforce, the interior ministry said on Monday.

Japan's senior employment rate is among the highest of all major economies, he added.

But even encouraging older workers is not enough to offset the social and economic impacts of the demographic crisis, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warning in January that Japan is "on the verge of being unable to maintain social functions".

He added that child rearing support was the government's "most important policy" and resolving the issue "simply cannot wait any longer".

China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are experiencing similar crises, struggling to encourage young people to have more children in the face of rising living costs and social discontent./ CNA