More than 10% of Japanese people are over 80, a statistic the government says has been reached for the first time in a country battling the aging of its population.
The government published these figures on Sunday, on the eve of the archipelago’s holiday dedicated to the “elderly people” (editor’s note: those over 65 years old). Among other things, 29.1% of Japanese are over 65 years old, an increase compared to last year (29%).
“Japan has the highest proportion of elderly people in the world,” the ministry said, pointing to the other two countries on the panel, Italy (24.5%) and Finland (23.6%).
For decades, Japan’s population has been shrinking and aging as young people delay marriage and having children, largely due to job insecurity and economic hardship.
Of 124 million inhabitants, there are 12.59 million people over 80 (10.1%) and 20 million people over 75 (16.1%) living in Japan.
One of the consequences of this situation is that people are working longer and older. More than 9 million older people work, or 13.6% of the workforce.
This means that 25% of older people in the archipelago are employed, less than in South Korea (36.2%) but more than in the United States (18.6%) and France (3.9%). according to published data.
In 2040, the elderly in Japan are expected to account for 34.8% of the population.