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Thursday, 30th June 2016
In General Japan News,
A quarter of Japan?s population 65 or over
More than 25 per cent of the Japanese population is now aged 65 or over, according to a government study that was released yesterday (June 29th).
The results show that as of October 1st, 2015, 26.7 per cent of the people in Japan or a whopping 33.42 million individuals are over the landmark age.
This is the highest proportion ever recorded and shows how a greying population could pose substantial problems for Japan moving forward.
At the other end of the scale, there are just 15.86 million under-14 year olds in Japan, equating to 12.7 per cent of the total population.
The prefectures with the highest proportion of over-65s were Akita, Kochi and Shimane at 33.5 per cent, 32.9 per cent and 32.6 per cent respectively.
Only six of Japan’s prefectures have populations with less than 25 per cent of their people being under 65.
They are Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Aichi, Shiga and Okinawa with the latter recording the lowest number of over-65s at 19.7 per cent.
When all of Japan’s 47 prefectures are taken as a whole, there are more people aged 65 and over than there are 14 and under.
As well as an aging population, the study also found the number of households containing just one person had reached 32.5 per cent.
This is thought to be a consequence of older people living alone after the death of a partner. One in five Japanese women over 65 now lives alone and one in eight of the same demographic.
The number of over-65s in Japan is up by 3.5 percentage points on the most recent survey prior to this one, which was conducted in 2010.
In comparison, Italy’s population consists of 22.4 per cent over-65s, while the proportion in Germany stands at 21.2 per cent.
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