How is Japan Coping With Its Super-Ageing Society?
It’s causing a lot of problems. Here’s how the government is responding:
Japan’s super-ageing society has been caused by the nation’s high life expectancy and low fertility rate, which has been prominent within the generations following WWII. The higher life expectancies are a result of improved nutrition, living conditions and public health.
Japan became an ‘ageing society’ in 1970, which is defined by the World Health Organisation as one with 7% or more of people aged 65 and over. The country was later deemed an ‘aged society’ in 1994 with 14% of its population aged 65 and over.
Many challenges have emerged as a result of Japan’s super-ageing society, most of which transpire as the issues of elderly care, an ageing workforce and widespread personal anxieties around growing older and more dependent on others. Other problems have also arisen, such as an inevitable labour shortage due to there not being enough young workers to replace the older generations which will eventually retire from their roles.
Therefore, Japan’s super-ageing society has been described by many as a crisis, and bureaucratic intervention has become necessary and immediate. The Japanese government have responded to these problems with various ongoing solutions…
Elderly Care
Perhaps the most predominant challenge of Japan’s super-ageing society is the question of elderly care. Traditionally, Japanese society has placed the responsibility of elderly care upon their children; however, this has become a difficulty in modern times, as the low fertility rate in Japan has resulted in couples having less children — if having any at all. Furthermore, there is an even lower chance that these children will have siblings to share this responsibility with, causing more complications.
In addition, the ‘double-care’ generation of Japanese people are those that must care simultaneously for their children as well as their parents due to late marriages and childbirths as a consequence of a work-focused society. Many of those struggling to provide childcare as well as elderly care have quit their jobs to concentrate on these responsibilities, provoking yet further economic concern.
According to the Employment Status Survey in July 2018, there were 99,100 people (76% of whom were women) who quit their jobs due to complications with caregiving responsibilities in the year up to September 2017 alone. As Japanese society still places a strong emphasis on gender roles and responsibilities, men are finding it difficult to turn down overtime or take reduced hours to assist in providing care, forcing women to forfeit their careers instead.
The Japanese government has directly addressed this problem through its amendments to the Family Care Leave system, where from January 1st 2021 employees could apply to take time off for child or family nursing leave on an hourly basis. Furthermore, these opportunities became newly available to employees who work for four hours or less per day, which had not been previously accessible. Prior to this, employees were only offered up to ten days of unpaid leave per year to care for an unwell elementary school child or family member.
Are Robots the Answer?
The Japanese government has predicted a deficit of 370,000 caregivers by 2025 due to the post-war baby boomers ageing and becoming unable to provide care for the older generation. Therefore, they are promoting the development of robots to assist in nursing and elderly care. The Investments for the Future Strategy 2017, a national policy, aims to develop these robots for reducing the burden on caregivers and providing self-reliance support.
Moreover, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have promised to support businesses in developing these caregiving robots by advancing the Project to Promote the Development and Introduction of Robotic Devices for Nursing Care in 2017. Rather than replace human caretakers, the inclusion of robots would focus on reducing the stress of the nursing staff, such as helping frail residents get out of their beds and into wheelchairs or when using the toilet or getting in and out of bathtubs, for example. Since 2015, the Japanese government has funded the development of robotics with 4.7-billion-yen subsidies, demonstrating the importance they will have in the future of its nation’s nursing.
An Ageing Workforce
Another challenge of Japan’s super-ageing society is its high proportion of working seniors which demand high wages relative to their seniority rather than their productivity. The government has encouraged an ‘ageless’ working society as the solution. The increasing labour shortage has previously put immense pressure on employers to hire younger workers, and so changes have been made to employment laws in order to keep people working for longer.
In 2013, ammendments to the Act on Stabilisation of Employment of Older Persons increased the retirement age from 60 to 65; then, in 2020, the retirement age was raised again to 70 and the maximum age for receiving public pension benefits was raised to 75. Furthermore, a majority of the nation’s elderly population claim to want to continue working beyond the age of 65 as means of staying active and to prevent mental and physical deterioration, according to the Japan Times (2020).
The Japanese word ikigai (roughly translating to ‘purpose of living’) is often associated with the elderly as they often find pride and comfort in their work — their ikigai. As traditional gender roles continue to remain prominent in modern Japan, a man’s ikigai may be his labour. Hence, an ageless workforce would help refute the personal anxieties of the Japanese elderly who worry they will become a societal burden if they do not contribute to society through their labour.
The government launched its system known as ‘Long-Term Care Insurance’ in 2000 as a mandatory program which supports the healthcare of those over the age of 65 years. This insurance program demonstrated that the Japanese government is concerned for the well-being of its older labourers while also attempting to shift the responsibility of elderly care from family to professional caregivers. The ‘Long-Term Care Insurance’ plan is perhaps the most successful initiative the Japanese government has introduced in response to Japan’s super-ageing society as it is enabling people to work longer and more safely.
So What Next?
A super-ageing society has provoked many socioeconomic challenges within contemporary Japan, raising somewhat unprecedented concerns around elderly care, an ageless workforce and the decline of traditional familial responsibilities.
The government has announced it will continue to respond to these challenges through the introduction of new legislation and the amendment of previous ones. They will also pursue the development of caregiving robotics that have become almost synonymous with modern Japanese culture and its contemporary achievements.
Despite being the most prominent, Japan is not the only rapidly ageing nation. Many European countries, predominantly Italy, Germany and Portugal, also have a substantial population of people aged 60 years or over. Perhaps these countries can learn from Japan’s successes when similar challenges inevitably arise for themselves.
