AGEING IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: KEY FACTS

Japan

KEY INDICATORS

Section I: Demographic indicators

1. Key population indicators, 20231

Indicators Value
Population age 60+ (thousands) 44,483
Population aged 60+ (% of total population) 36.1
Percentage of women out of the population aged 60+ 55.4
Percentage of women out of the population aged 80+ 62.8
Life expectancy at birth (years) 84.9
Median age (years) 49.1
Total fertility rate (2023) 1.3

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Thousands
Age 1950 1990 2020 2023 2030 2050
0-14 29,846 22,108 14,924 14,141 12,656 11,553
15-64 50,381 86,242 73,270 72,082 68,673 53,309
60+ 6,438 22,151 44,396 44,482 45,429 45,305
65+ 4,126 15,337 37,051 37,072 37,186 38,922
80+ 469 3,138 12,347 13,337 15,866 16,233
Total 84,353 123,686 125,245 123,295 118,515 103,784

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Percentage
Age 1950 1990 2020 2023 2030 2050
0-14 35.4 17.9 11.9 11.5 10.7 11.1
15-64 59.7 69.7 58.5 58.5 57.9 51.4
60+ 7.6 17.9 35.4 36.1 38.3 43.7
65+ 4.9 12.4 29.6 30.1 31.4 37.5
80+ 0.6 2.5 9.9 10.8 13.4 15.6

3. Percentage of total population by age group and sex, selected years1
1990
2020
2030
2050

4. Percentage of male and female population by age, 20231

5. Proportion of the total population by broad age group, 1950-20501

6. Proportion of population aged 80 years or over as percentage of population aged 65 years or over, 1950-20501

7. Median age of the total population, 1950-20501

8. Life expectancy at birth, male and female, 1950-20501

9. Potential old-age support ratio (ages 20-64/age 65+), 1950-20501

10. Speed of ageing (Number of years required or expected for percentage of population aged 65 and over to rise from 7 per cent to 14 per cent)1,2

11. Life expectancy at birth (both sexes), and total fertility rate, 1990-20501

Section II: Employment and social protection

12. Labour force participation rate of people aged 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year3

icon both 25.6 icon male 34.9 icon female 18.4

13. Percentage of older persons covered by social protection systems including floors (SDG 1.3.1), 2020 or latest available year4

14. Legal coverage of contributory mandatory pensions, total, female, male (percentage of working-age population), 2020 or latest available year4

icon both 54.2 icon male 61.6 icon female 47.2

15. Informal employment rate of 65+ (percentage of informal employment out of total employment in that age group)3

icon both n.a. icon male n.a. icon female n.a.

Section III: Health

16. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, both sexes, most recent years5

17. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, male and female, most recent years5

18. Out-of-pocket health expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE), latest available years5

19. Suicide rate, per 100,000 population, by sex and age group, latest available year 20195

20. Dementia physician density, per 1,000 population, latest available year5

icon physician 11.9 persons

21. Total expenditure on social protection (excluding health), percentage, 2020 or latest available year4

icon both 16.1

Section IV: Living arrangements

22. Household living arrangements of people aged 65 years or over, latest available years6

23. Literacy rate of older persons age 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year 7

icon both n.a.
(of 65+ total population) icon male n.a.
(of 65+ male population) icon female n.a.
(of 65+ female population)

24. Internet users, as a percentage of their age group, latest available years8

Source: ESCAP 2022. Ageing in Asia and the Pacific: key facts, available at: https://www.population-trends-asiapacific.org/data

Footnote

  1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022, Online Edition.
  2. Kinsella, Kevin and Wan He (2009). “An Aging World: 2008”. International Population Reports, Issued June 2009: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Commerce. Available at https://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p95-09-1.pdf
  3. International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT Data. Available at https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/ (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  4. World Social Protection Data Dashboards. Available at https://www.social-protection.org (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  5. World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory data repository. Available at https://www.who.int/data/gho (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  6. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons 2022. Available at https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/data/living-arrangements-older-persons (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  7. World Bank, Databank. Available at https://databank.worldbank.org/ (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  8. ITU (2022). ITU, Digital Development Dashboard. Available at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Dashboards/Pages/Digital-Development.aspx (accessed on 20 Februry 2023).