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CNN
—
The world's population is ageing, what the United Nations calls an “irreversible global trend” caused by longer life spans and smaller family sizes.
A United Nations report released last year said the number of people aged 65 and over worldwide is expected to more than double to 1.6 billion by 2050.
The shift threatens one of the world's largest economies as Japan's population grows older and fewer couples have children.
In early June, Japan announced that births had fallen for an eighth consecutive year, projecting that the number of births in 2023 would be 727,277, the lowest on record since Japan began keeping statistics more than 120 years ago.
A few months ago, Japan announced that it had become the oldest country in the world, with one in 10 people over 80. Last year, almost 30% of Japan's population was over 65.
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In June 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a multi-billion dollar package of measures to encourage families to have more children as Japan tries to tackle a demographic crisis that could affect pension funds and healthcare due to a shrinking workforce and surging demand from an aging population.
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The aging population is also changing the consumer product market.
While demand for adult diapers is increasing in Japan, demand for baby diapers is decreasing.
According to market research firm Euromonitor International, the global market size for adult diapers is expected to reach $12.8 billion in 2023. It is expected to reach nearly $15.5 billion by 2026. In Japan, the adult diaper market is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2023 to $1.9 billion in 2026, accounting for more than 12% of the global total.
One example of a company adapting to this change is Japanese manufacturer Oji Holdings, which announced in March that it would stop making baby diapers for the Japanese market later this year to focus on adult incontinence products.
The company announced that it will continue its baby diaper business overseas. Total baby diaper sales in China, Indonesia and Malaysia are growing despite a slowdown in the domestic market, and the company expects adult diaper sales to exceed infant diaper sales by 7.3% in 2023.
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Other Japanese companies are already adapting to this change. Electronics giant Panasonic says on its website that it has been researching and developing products targeted at the elderly since 1990.
Kitchen appliance maker Zojirushi offers a feature in its products aimed at seniors, such as an electric kettle, that sends an email to a registered address upon use, allowing relatives to keep track of their elderly family members' activities.
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Japan is not the only Asian country grappling with an ageing population. South Korea, which has the world's lowest birth rate, is set to hit a record low of 0.72 births per woman in 2023, down from 0.78 in 2022. The government is so concerned it has set up a new agency, the Office of Low Fertility Planning. Births are also falling in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.
According to the United Nations, in 2050, six Asian countries or regions will be among the top 10 countries with the highest percentage of people aged 65 or over, with Hong Kong coming in first. By 2100, Africa is expected to be the only region where older people make up fewer than 15 percent of the population. By then, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean are likely to have more than 30 percent older people, according to UN projections.
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Currently, Europe and North America have the highest proportions of older people, but over the next 30 years the fastest growth in the number of older people is expected to occur in North Africa, Western Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
