View this interactive content on CNN.com
Hong Kong
CNN
—
The world’s population is aging, in what the United Nations calls an “irreversible global trend” driven by longer life expectancies and smaller families.
According to a UN report released last year, the number of people aged 65 and over is expected to more than double to 1.6 billion worldwide by 2050.
In Japan, this shift threatens one of the world’s largest economies, as the percentage of elderly people increases and fewer couples have children.
In early June, the country said the number of babies born had declined for the eighth consecutive year, reaching a record low of 727,277 births in 2023 since Japan began compiling data more than 120 years ago.
A few months earlier, Japan claimed that one in ten people were aged 80 or older, making it the oldest country in the world. Last year, nearly 30% of Japan’s population was aged 65 or older.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
In June 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled a multibillion-dollar package of measures to encourage families to have more children. Japan is trying to tackle a demographic crisis that could impact funding for pensions and health care as the workforce shrinks and demands from an aging population increase.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
The growth of the elderly population is also changing the consumer product market.
In Japan, demand for adult diapers is increasing, while demand for baby diapers is decreasing.
According to market research provider Euromonitor International, the global adult diaper market was valued at $12.8 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach nearly $15.5 billion by 2026. In Japan, the adult diaper market was valued at $1.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $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 producing baby diapers for the Japanese market later this year to focus on adult incontinence products.
The company will continue to operate its baby diaper business overseas, it said. Their combined baby diaper sales in China, Indonesia and Malaysia have increased despite a slowdown in the domestic market, where the company sold 7.3% more adult diapers than baby diapers in 2023.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
Other Japanese companies have already started to adapt to this development. Electronics giant Panasonic, which has been researching and developing products for the elderly since 1990, says its website.
Kitchen appliance maker Zojirushi offers products aimed at seniors, such as electric teapots that send an email to a registered address when they are used, so loved ones can track the activities of their elderly family members.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
Japan is not alone in Asia in facing an aging population. South Korea, which has the world’s lowest fertility rate, has set a new record of 0.72 babies per woman in 2023, down from 0.78 in 2022. The government is so concerned that it has created a new agency: the Ministry for Combating Low Birth Rates. Births are also falling in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan.
According to the UN, six Asian countries or territories will be among the top ten countries with the highest number of people aged 65 or older by 2050, with Hong Kong topping the list. By 2100, Africa is expected to be the only region where seniors will make up less than 15% of the population. Seniors in Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean will likely exceed the 30% threshold by then, the UN predicts.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
Although Europe and North America now have the largest share of older people, North Africa, Western Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are expected to experience the fastest growth in the number of older people over the next 30 years.
