70-year-olds and above account for 20% of Japan's population for 1st time

20% of the population 90% of politicians.

Beg to differ, people work and pay to retire. If your smart you plan and retire well before 70.

Retirement ages of 60 and 70 are what are going to have to be drastically increased in the next few years to keep up with advances in medical science and longevity research. What happens when the 'elderly' get out that young and then 'get well' enough to have more than half of their life, or more, still to live ?

I'd be more interested to know what percent of the wealth in Japan is owned by people who are in their seventies and above. I'm pretty sure it's a lot higher than 20% and that explains a lot.

The 65-75 age group would be better defined as “senior” rather than elderly.

The 65-75 age group should not be defined by ageist measures at all. Age is as much a social and mental construct as it is a condition of a longer life. I know 50 year-olds who behave as if they are decrepit and 88 year-olds who are still engaged and productive in their communities. Individuals vary. Their gifts vary. Forget the labels: Embrace people and their gifts.

The increasing older population and labour shortage should encourage employers to get rid of their mandatory retirement ages. It's dscriminatory and people should be able to work in proper jobs (not zero hours, temporary or part time jobs) for as long as they want and are able.

It should be illegal to make anyone retire because of their age, and it should be illegal for employers to discriminate due to age.

Seniority at Japanese companies means most sixty year olds are on very high wages regardless of their current performance. The lifetime employment system relies on them finishing. I'm afraid there are too many out there with limited talents and productivity to force companies to keep them on on that very high pay scale. Many workplaces already support their ageing seishain by using young people as temps on poor conditions.

The actual number of old people in the story is simply playing out as predicted thirty or forty years ago. Provided that the pension scheme does not blow up, I think the real problem will come when the boomers hit 85, because the stats say that's when most people need some kind of help. I think there is also a large drop in consumption as 70 year olds become 80 year olds. This will surely hit domestic retail and domestic tourism.

I'd be more interested to know what percent of the wealth in Japan is owned by people who are in their seventies and above. I'm pretty sure it's a lot higher than 20% and that explains a lot.

Krusty, I don't have a source for you as this is from memory, but I remember reading that the midpoint of Japanese wealth/age distribution is age 71. That is, as much wealth is owned by people aged over 71 than all ages below combined.

No idea what the figures are for other countries, and if everyone saves diligently over a lifetime it sort of should be that way, but it was still a surprise.

This is getting annoying. Is like the media keep reporting the same old news again and again. We heard it a millions times already. Every month they like to remind us. What do they want? Every population will meet it’s peak once. We will just restart then. There is still millions of non-elder. We live in islands with barely any land masses.We also lack many resources. Is not like increasing the population will do us any good. To preserve our culture and nature it’s already more than enough that our population is at the 100million marks. The old will die and we will just start anew then. Our economic might be hit hard and our population might schrink,but as long there is still Japanese we can restart again. Japan will continue to preserve it tradition even if it schrink by half. Is not always about money and having one of the best economy. We started from nothing after the war and had a small population. We will just have to do it again. Is the cycle of life.

Abe should allow the Mature Adults to continue working "and" get their Social Security Money. In other words they work for their salary and collect their Social Security Check each month. They would continue paying into the program from the Work side of it. And they can start collecting it at 60 years of age. The premise is that so called retirement money they collect while they are still younger at 60 yrs. they can use to create jobs, and investing that would increase the Work Opportunities, and therefore increase the revenue coming into the Social Security System. The reason it doesn't work now, is because you don't allow it. You cut people off, instead of allowing them to grow. You call them too old. And should retire. No one should retire. It sounds like retread, born again, and keep going is the living.

Let people keep working, but reassess people's pay on a case by case basis based on productivity, skills, etc. There is a huge variation and many should continue at the same (high) salary, but can still offer some value.

They are perfect for volunteering at the Olympic.

Hiro that's a great and accurate post.

I'm sorry, yes some people want /have to work until death, others don't, it's a choice. And I'm not judging. Each to their own. Politicians have no business lingering on after 60. My point is if they are so smart what are they doing collecting a massive salery and unable to retire? Whoops tax up to sustain their lifestyle.

akie:

Cricky, politicians are not smart, many of them can't even read math books.

Forget math. Some can't even read basic kanji (Aso), or even pronounce the word I.T. (Mori).

@ThonTaddeo

That's interesting! Thank you.

Shocking statistics.

This cannot be considered normal in today's world. It's a society who's stubbornness and inherent unwillingness to change is causing its own ruin.

Beg to differ, people work and pay to retire. If your smart you plan and retire well before 70. There are reasons why there is a retirement age, outdated education, a yearning for the golden age 50 years ago. Really if you can not relax and enjoy your twilight years you have seriously made a huge mistake or your in politics. Well there is a doozy.

You can still work hard and still never have enough to retire on, try preparing for retirement on a zero hour or temp contract. Some people, like my husband, don't want to retire, he wants to work as long as he can. There was a retirement age so people weren't worked to death, but many want to keep on working, no one should be forced to retire.

I would love to retire at some point, but can't.

Cricky, politicians are not smart, many of them can't even read math books.

"No idea what the figures are for other countries, and if everyone saves diligently over a lifetime it sort of should be that way, but it was still a surprise."

It was considerably easier to do this in past decades than it currently is. You could save money in CDs and get 6%. You could buy a house (or two) and watch it's value go up along with your salary over time, which means that the % paid to your (set amount) mortgage would go down over time. Many workers, after a decade or two only had to pay 10% to their mortgage.

Beg to differ, people work and pay to retire. If your smart you plan and retire well before 70. There are reasons why there is a retirement age, outdated education, a yearning for the golden age 50 years ago. Really if you can not relax and enjoy your twilight years you have seriously made a huge mistake or your in politics. Well there is a doozy.

Again I'm sorry, it's not fair at all. Seriously it's just not fair. I'm lucky, at the moment. But that can change tomorrow. I'm trying to teach my grandchildren to plan it's not easy but I have to try.

I see no major problem with this statistics. Population is shrinking, which is good for nature, and food self sufficiency in Japan will improve, due to less mouths to feed. Trains and hospitals will be less crowded, cities quieter, easy to get a table in your favorite restaurant, easier to get into schools and university, and of course get jobs.

As long as elderly Japanese continue exercising (like in the excellent photo) and being healthy, there is no problem, media is just being negative about the issue.

Besides tax and financial views, its not a bad thing. This is an overpopulated island and after this will just come another bubble of youth.