Japan

• Japan’s society is the oldest in the world: 28.7 % of the population are 65 or older, with women forming the majority
• The country is also home to a record 80 000 centenarians. By 2036, people aged 65 and over will represent a third of the population.  Population will be 127 million in 2015 to 88 million by 2065. 
• The median age is 48, the world's highest. In Japan, in fact, more than one in four people are 65 or over – 28.7 % of the population, making up 36.17 million according to government statistics released in September 2020; this makes Japan the country with the oldest population by far.
• Japan's demographic 'pyramid' lost its shape in the 1990s, when a structural shift resulted in a bulge in the middle-aged and older area. The current impression is more of an urn, with the pyramid covering a smaller area, representing a diminished population.

  Japan had a baby boom right after World War II, but this was much shorter-lived than in other countries (from 1947 to 1949). A second baby boom followed from 1971 to 1974.
• However, since 1974, the country has failed to raise its fertility rate to the replacement level of 2.1.
• The issue gained national attention in 1990, with the so-called '1.57 shock', when Japan's birth rate fell to its lowest recorded level in history. In 2018, the rate was 1.42 children per woman.
• Japan's population has been constantly shrinking since 2011: in 2019, it diminished by 276 000 people, decreasing in 40 out of 47 prefectures.
• If Japanese nationals only are considered, the population fell by 487 000 people, which means that immigration only partially offsets the falling numbers of Japanese locals. Based on October 2020 projections, the population was 125.59 million.
• Lowered birth rates have been thought to have been caused by a variety of factors which include later marriage (30.7 for men and 29 for women), smaller living spaces due to overpopulation, dedication to raising healthy children, high employment rates for married women, longer life expectancy due to excellent medical health care, good diets, and high quality of life.
•  Japan's demographic crisis is the consequence of the combination of two elements: a high life expectancy and a low fertility rate.
• In 2018, Japan had the second highest life expectancy in the world. Meanwhile, since the 1970s the country has failed to raise its fertility rate to the replacement level.

  The working culture, a deterioration of employment opportunities for young men and the traditional gender division of labour are possible explanations for this trend.

  Japan's fertility rate began to decline in the 1970s.
• This has contributed to a lower birth rate –in Japan in 2018 a mere 2.3 % of children were born outside marriage.
• The Covid-19 pandemic has added to this trend: the number of notified pregnancies in the three months to July 2020 fell 11.4 % from a year earlier, while the number of marriages over the same period dropped by 36.9 %.
• One of the main reasons for this lower birth rate is the deterioration of employment opportunities for young men, who could find life-long jobs more easily in the past. This affects their possibilities of settling down, including their marriage chances: some argue that Japanese women tend to seek men in stable employment and a level of education higher than their own.
• A 2019 study on virginity rates showed that the lack of heterosexual sexual experience is rising, and that men with permanent, full-time and well-paid jobs were more likely to have had sex.
• The population of Japan will shrink from 127 million in 2007 to 95 million in 2050. Health care and nursing home costs in 2025 are expected to be almost $1 trillion, about 12% of GDP.
•  Falling working population meaning that there position as 3rd largest world economy will be impossible to maintain. The work force is expected to fall 15% over the next 20 years and halve in the next 50 years
• The declining numbers of young people in the labour force has led to a shortage of workers in manufacturing and the ageing of the workforce has provoked a decline in production and innovation, and therefore a drop in Japan's manufacturing exports as a share of global exports.
• The growing elderly population is bringing down savings, while the decreasing labour force is resulting in a declining return on investment and reducing the investment rate. In November 2018, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff paper estimated that Japan's economic growth would decline by 0.8 % on average each year over the next 40 years due to demographics alone.
• An ageing society results in challenging budget consequences - Japan's health expenditure reached 10.9 % of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 and, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is projected to reach 12.1 % by 2030.. Spending in 2018 on people aged under 75 was ¥222 000 (€1 800), whereas for patients aged 75 and older it was more than four times greater: ¥939 000 (€ 7 600).
• The farming population is shrinking dramatically (from 5.42 million in the 1985 agricultural census to 2.09 million in 2015) and some rural municipalities are at risk of disappearance, while the agricultural sector now faces a severe labour shortage. Farmers are also ageing.
• In 2015, of the 1.75 million people primarily engaged in agriculture, 63.5 % were aged 65 or over, a percentage that has tripled in 30 years.
• In 2014, former minister for internal affairs Masuda Hiroya published Local Extinctions: a report based on National Institution of Population and Social Security Research figures showing that 896 cities, towns and villages throughout Japan were facing extinction by 2040.
• The number of unoccupied houses (and shops) is on the rise: in October 2018, these represented 13.5 % of all houses (8.5 million).
• Demography also has an impact on education. A shrinking child population is leading local governments around Japan to close schools: more than 200 elementary and junior high schools closed across Japan in 2018. Universities are also struggling to cope with a shrinking population. The percentage of private universities that have faced shortfalls in student enrolment compared to the quota authorised by the government has been increasing in recent years.
•  The decrease in the size of the youth population reduces competition among the young people being screened for the domestic education system, who tend not to engage seriously in competition-oriented learning