日本人口老化

Recently the Excite News reported the following:

総務省は２０日、敬老の日に合わせて６５歳以上の高齢者人口の推計値（１５日現在）を発表した。６５歳以上の女性は全女性人口の２５．４％と初めて２５％を超え、女性の４人に１人が高齢者となった。また、６５歳以上の男性も全男性人口の１９．９％となり、男性のほぼ５人に１人が高齢者となった。

６５歳以上の高齢者は２８９８万人（男性１２３９万人、女性１６５９万人）で前年より８０万人の増。総人口の２２．７％を占め、人数、割合とも現行の統計方式が始まった１９５０（昭和２５）年以来、過去最高を更新した。７０歳以上は２０６０万人（総人口の１６．１％）、７５歳以上は１３７０万人（同１０．７％）、８０歳以上は７８９万人（同６．２％）で、いずれも過去最高だった。

On the 20th of this month, being a Respect the Aged Day, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications announced the estimated population figure on senior citizen who were over 65-year-old (as at 15th). Women over 65-year-old represent 25.4% of total population which was for the first to exceed 25%, and that meant one woman in four became a senior citizen. Moreover, men aged over 65 represented 19.9% of the total population, which meant almost one man in five became a senior citizen.

People aged over 65 was 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59 million women) representing an increase of 80 million compared with the previous year. It accounted for 22.7% of the total population, which was a new height both in terms of people number and ratio since the present statistical method was started in 1950. People aged over 70 was 20.6 million (16.1% of total population), aged over 75 was 13.7 million (10.7%) and aged over 80 was 7.89 million (6.2%), all figures were the highest compared with the past records.

From the above news, it seems that Japan has an aging population. How to care for these senior citizen would be a challenge to the government, in particular during the present economic downturn.