More than 10% of Japan’s population is now aged 80 or over, the government said on Monday (18). The number is the latest worrying milestone in the country’s demographic crisis, which has an increasingly older age pyramid.
According to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the proportion of Japan’s elderly – defined as those aged 65 and over – has also reached a record high, comprising 29.1% of the country’s total population, making it the highest rate. high in the world.
The ministry released the figures to mark the Day of Respect for the Elderly (a public holiday in the country) which is also facing a sharp drop in the birth rate and a reduction in the workforce that could have an impact on the financing of pensions and healthcare as appropriate. that demand from the elderly population increases.
Japan’s population has been in steady decline since its economic boom in the 1980s, with a fertility rate of 1.3 – far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population in the absence of 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 also has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, contributing to the increase in the elderly population.
To address growing labor shortages and in hopes of reinvigorating a stagnant economy, the Japanese government has encouraged more seniors and stay-at-home mothers to enter the job market over the past decade.
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To some extent, that message worked: There are now a record 9.12 million older workers in Japan, a number that has grown for 19 consecutive years. Workers aged 65 and over now represent more than 13% of the national workforce, the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Monday.
The employment rate of seniors in Japan is among the highest in major economies, he added.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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