National Apr 17, 2015
Seniors grow to 26% of population as Japan shrinks for fourth year straight
Japan’s population falls for the fourth consecutive year and people 65 or older now account for a record 26 percent of the total.
Business / Economy Apr 15, 2015
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development urged Japan on Wednesday to implement bold structural reforms to boost economic growth and map out a "credible" plan to restore its precarious fiscal health. Noting that the nation's aging population is likely to weigh on economic growth ...
National / Social Issues Feb 24, 2015
Tokyo's elderly turned away amid labor crunch, funding cuts
by Kanoko Matsuyama
Tokyo's elderly population is ballooning, waiting lists for nursing homes run a mile long, and there's a fierce scramble for free beds. So why are these businesses catering to the city's aging denizens scaling back? In Adachi Ward, as many as 4,000 elderly residents are ...
National Feb 13, 2015
Tottori boasts low cost of living, other merits to persuade young ranks to stay
Tottori, the nation's least-populated prefecture, is trying to stop young people from leaving by visiting local high schools and showing data that boast the region's low cost of living and other merits. The Tottori Prefectural Government has created a pamphlet that says the average monthly ...
National / Social Issues Feb 4, 2015
In shrinking villages, abandoned graves are a sign of generational flight
by Yoshiaki Nohara
In the nation's declining provinces, it is not only the living who are neglected. Family shrines that hold the ashes of generations are often overgrown or broken, something once unheard of in a society that reveres its ancestors. With the population dying off at an ...
National / Science & Health Jan 27, 2015
The government on Tuesday adopted a new strategy to bolster measures against dementia, expecting the number of patients to reach about 7 million in 2025 as the population ages. The policy is aimed at providing appropriate medical care and support for patients and their families ...
National Jan 21, 2015
Government earmarks funds to deal with caregiver shortage
by Shusuke Murai
A crisis in nursing care is brewing. The government estimates that the nation will be short of 300,000 professional caregivers by 2025, when postwar baby boomers will be 75 or older and many will need regular care. The health ministry says Japan will need 2.5 ...
National Jan 10, 2015
Half of new adults strangers to romance: survey
by Tomohiro Osaki
Nearly half of Japan's 20-year-olds have never been in a romantic relationship and 1 in 5 has never fallen in love, a survey by a marriage counseling firm says. The annual survey, conducted by O-net for the past 20 years, covered 600 fledgling adults slated ...
National | 70 YEARS OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY Jan 5, 2015
Numbers tell tale of Japan's postwar rise and fall
by Reiji Yoshida
Three charts sum up Japan's fortunes over the past seven decades.
National Jan 1, 2015
Number of newborn babies in Japan fell to record low in 2014
Japan's population likely dropped further in 2014, with the estimated number of newborn babies in the country falling to 1,001,000, down about 29,000 from the previous year, according to health ministry estimates released on Wednesday. The estimated number of people who died in 2014 totaled ...
National Dec 31, 2014
Number of 20-year-olds in Japan rises for first time in 21 years
The number of people aged 20, the legal age of adulthood in Japan, was estimated to have reached 1.26 million on New Year's Day 2015, the first increase in 21 years, government statistics showed on Wednesday. Of that total, 650,000 are men and 610,000 are ...
National / Social Issues Dec 26, 2014
Government aims to create regional jobs in five-year plan to fight depopulation
As part of its comprehensive strategy to combat population decline and revitalize Japan's regions, the government will aim to create 300,000 regional jobs by 2020 to stem the flow of young workers to Tokyo, according to a final five-year policy plan obtained by Kyodo ...