Changing Population In Japan And A Life-Long Active Society To Cope With It

Japan's ageing population also has a sort of depth. By “depth,” I mean that within the older population itself the proportion of very old people aged 75 years old and over is increasing particularly rapidly. The proportion of very old people aged 75 years old will be 20% in 2035. This tremendously aging population has an enormous impact on the Japanese economy and society. As you can imagine, its most significant impact is on social security. As a result of this ageing population the total expenditure on social security was almost 110 trillion yen in the 2012 fiscal year which is 22.8% of the GDP. Roughly half of this amount is for public pensions and one third of this amount is for medical care and long-term care. The other impact of an ageing population is that we have a smaller work force and therefore productivity will decrease unless there is substantial improvement in the productivity per worker. It also leads to lower earnings from work and therefore decreasing consumption, unless there is a substantial increase in income per capita.