On May 29th, 2009, the Cabinet Office released “White Paperon an Aging Society 2009,” which is an annual report the government submits to Diet, explaining the current conditions of population aging and overnment measures for an aged society.
The following is a summary of the White Paper. More information on the White Paper in English (up to 2007) is available on the Cabinet Office web site (as of June 2009)
(http://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/english/annualreport/index-wh.html).
<Population Aging>
As of October 1st, 2008, there were 127.69 million people in Japan, of whom those aged 65 or over were 28.22 million. This means older persons represent 22.1%, or more than 1 in every 5 Japanese persons. Among older persons, there were 15 million (11.7% of the total population) “young-olds (aged 65 to 74)” and 13.22 million (10.4% of the total population) “old-olds (age 75+).” The proportion of the “old-olds” reached 10% for the first time in history. The proportion of older persons will continue to grow in the future, and it is expected to become 25.2% in 2013, 33.7% in 2035 and 40.5% in 2005. In other words, 2 in every 5 persons will be aged 65+. The growth rate will be particularly higher until 2035 in such metropolitan areas as Kanagawa and Saitama Prefectures.
On the other hand, there were 17.18 million children aged 0 to 14 as of 2008. The child population will hit below 10 million in 2039 and 7.52 million, or less than half of the 2008 figure, in 2055. The declining births will affect the size of the working-age population (those aged 15 to 64) as well. It was 82.3 million in 2008 but will decline to less than 80 million in 2012 and 45.95 million in 2055. The ratio of older persons to the working-age population was 1:11.2 in 1960. In 2005, it was 1:3.3 and will become 1:1.3 in 2055.
The average live expectancy was 79.19 years for males and 85.99 years for females in 2007. In 2055, it will be 83.67 years for males and 90.34 years for females (see Figure 1).
<Families and Households>
As of 2007, there were 19.26 million households with older persons aged 65 or over, which represented 40.1% of the total Japanese households (n=4,802). Among the households with older persons, 4.33 million (22.5%) were “one-person households,” 5.73 million (29.8%) were “households of couple only” and 3.53 million (18.3%) were three-generation households. The proportions of “one-person households” and “households with couple only” have been increasing in recent years (see Figure 2).
Sources: Ministry of Health and Welfare “Basic Survey of Health and Welfare Administration (up to 1985).” Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare (since 1986).”
Note 1: Data in 1995 exclude Hyogo Prefecture.
Note 2: Figures in parentheses refer to the percent distribution to the total number of households with persons aged 65+.
<Economic Status>
As for financial conditions of older persons, 26.4% feel it is “rough” while only 8.5% feel comfortable. Moreover, 40.4% of older persons reported that they could not make ends meet.
In 2006, the average annual income of aged households (which consist of those aged 65+ and unmarried person(s) aged less than 18) was 3.063 million yen, a little over a half of the average income of total households (5.668 million yen).However, because the size of aged households tends to be smaller than that of total households, their average income per capita is 1.955 million yen, similar to that of total households (2.071 million yen).
Older persons are more likely than younger persons to receive public assistance. The proportion of those on public assistance is 2.25% for persons aged 65+, more than three times as high as the total population (0.69%). The actual number of older persons receiving public assistance has grown by 168,000 in the last 5 years (see Figure 3). Moreover, income gaps are bigger among older persons than the total population even after social redistribution measures, such as social security benefits, are taken into account.
Source: Cabinet Office’s calculation based on Statistics Bureau’s population estimates and census data and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s national statistics on public assistance.
<Health and Welfare>
According to a study with older persons in 5 countries (2006), Japanese elderly are more likely to feel they are healthy (64.4%) than older persons in other countries such as U.S. (61.0%), France (53.5%), South Korea (43.2%) and Germany (32.9%). The same study also shows that Japanese elderly use health services more frequently than older persons in other countries.
As for caregiving, 4.251 million people aged 65+ are certified as needing care or support under the national long-term care insurance (as of March 2007). This represents 16.0% of the elderly population. Looking more closely by age group, 4.5% of the young-old and 28.0% of the old-old are certified as needing care or support.
When older persons are asked who they would like to have as their caregiver, the most frequent response is “spouse (80.7%)” for males and “children (63.1%)” for females. Regarding the actual caregivers, about 60% of the primary caregivers live with care recipients, of whom 25.0% are spouses, 17.9% are children and 14.3% are children’s spouses (see Figure 4). Females account for 71.9% of those caregivers. Moreover, 65.8% of male caregivers and 55.8% of female caregivers are aged 60+, meaning that a large number of older persons are providing care for another older person (“Roh-Roh Kaigo” or “Old-Old Caregiving”).
Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare, 2007.)
<Employment>
Labor participation rates are quite high among Japanese older persons. For males, 90.5% of those aged 55 to 59, 73.1% of those aged 60 to 64, and 50.1% of those aged 65 to 69 work.
The proportions for females by the same age group are 61.6%, 43.5% and 28.2% respectively. The labor participation rates show a dramatic growth particularly among those in early 60s in recent years. This may at least partially due to a growing number of people taking advantage of postponed retirement ages and rehiring systems after retirement.
A number of older persons who are not currently working also hope to do so. According to an opinion survey with persons aged 60+ in 2007, 41.2% of the respondents said they would like to work as long as they wish when asked until what age they would like to work. The proportion of this response was 34.1% in 2006, showing a significant growth in preference for work among older persons.
Although unemployment rates had shown a decline until 2007, we should keep our close eyes on effects of the global economic crisis (see Figure 5).
Source: Statistics Bureau “Labor Force Survey.”
<Social Participation>
According to a study with persons aged 60+ on communication with their neighbors, the proportion of the response “having close relationships” has declined to 43.0% while the response “merely exchanging greetings” has increased to 51.2%. This result implies a weakening tie among neighbors (see Figure 6).
As for group activities among persons aged 60+, 59.2% participate in at least one group activity, showing a 15.5% growth in 10 years. The most popular group activity is “health-related activities and sports (30.5%),” followed by “community events (24.4%)” and “hobby (20.2%).”
<Living Environment>
The number of traffic accidents caused by older persons (aged 65+) had grown constantly in recent years but showed a slight decline in 2008. Yet, older persons accounted for 14.1% of the accidents in 2008, almost twice as high as the proportion in 1998 (7.1%) (see Figure 7).
A number of older persons are also vulnerable to consumer problems. Although the number of contacts made by persons aged 70+ to Consumer Service Centers throughout the country has been decreasing in the last few years, it has been over 100,000 per year since 2004.
<Measures for the Aged Society>
Based on the Basic Law on Measures for the Aging Society, Japan has been taking various measures to prepare for the aged society. Taking the recent trends into account, the White Paper introduces several measures that have been taken and/or will be taken in the near future, including the following examples.
○Work and Employment
Requiring employers to gradually postpone the retirement age to 65 and/or to introduce a continuous employment system by 2013.
Promoting companies where people can work until age 70.
○Health and Welfare
・ Promoting National Health Promotion Movement in the 21st Century (Healthy Japan 21)1) (since 2000).
Establishing Regional Comprehensive Support Centers to provide overall consultation services for older persons in a community (since 2006).
Measures for appropriate management of long-term care service providers and for securing direct care workforce (since 2008).
Educational activities on dementia and long-term care.
Promoting community development to prevent isolation of older persons.
Disseminating information on and improving the new health insurance system for older persons.
○Learning and Social Participation
Supporting and promoting Senior Citizens’ Clubs.
Organizing National Health and Welfare Festivals (Nenrin-Pic) 2).
Promoting “Educational Supporter System” in which older persons can utilize their experiences and contribute to schools and communities.
○Living Environment
Developing registration and browsing systems on rental housing which do not refuse older persons.
Promoting barrier-free environment through grants and tax breaks.
Conducting cognitive tests for persons who will be aged 75+ when their driver licenses expire (since 2009).
Enhancing educational, preventive and regulatory measures against billing fraud.
As stated above, older persons are more active in such areas as group activities and employment than before. In the meantime, they are less likely to live with other generations, and their ties with neighbors seem to be weakened. There are also a number of challenges facing older persons, including economic disparity, the growing number of persons receiving public assistance, older persons providing care for another older person and consumer problems. The country has been taking various measures to overcome such challenges, and we need to keep eyes on how these measures will make an actual impact on older persons and the aged society.
1) National Health Promotion Movement in the 21st Century (Healthy Japan 21) Ministry of Health and Welfare started this national movement in 2000 to promote citizens’ health throughout life. Its goals are to improve lifestyles, to eliminate risk factors, enhancing health check-up systems and decreasing diseases. It sets 70 concrete goals in 9 areas (“foods and nutrition,” “physical activities and exercise,” “resting and mental health,” “smoking,” “alcohol,” “dental health,” “diabetes,” “cardiovascular diseases” and “cancer”), and the nation has been disseminating relevant information to citizens and developing systems to achieve these goals. More information (only in Japanese) is available on a web site (http://www.kenkounippon21.gr.jp/).
2) National Health and Welfare Festival (Nenrin-Pic)
“Nenrin-Pic” is the word derived from Japanese word “Nenrin (annual growth ring)” and a part of the word “Olympics.” It is an annual and comprehensive festival for all the generations, including sport events mainly for persons aged 60+, cultural events (e.g., art exhibitions and music festivals), exhibits of health- and welfare-related devices and kids’ festivals. It started in 1988 as a celebration of 50th anniversary of Ministry of Health and Welfare. More information (only in Japanese) is available on a web site (http://www.nenrin.or.jp/center/pic/).
June, 2009
Yoshiko Yamada
Researcher, Japan Aging Research Center
