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Jacob M Schlesinger and Alexander Martin, Graying Japan Looks for a Silver Lining; Japan’ 60-, 70-, even 80-year-olds prove more vigorous than earlier generations. Wall Street Journal, Nov 30, 2015 (front page; in the series “2050: Demographic Destiny”)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/gray ... en-years-1448808028
Quote:
(a) "A public works program launched by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been constrained by a shortage of young manual laborers.
(b) "Japan’s life expectancy is 87 years for women, the world’s longest, and five years more than in the U.. For men, it is 81—the third-longest in the world, and four years greater than in the US. Japan’s 'healthy life expectancy'—an estimate of the age a person can reach and still live independently—is the world’s longest for both women (75) and men (71), according to a study published in the Lancet, a medical-research journal. A Japanese mountaineer two years ago became the first octogenarian to scale Mount Everest
(c) "Japan currently spends 10% of its economy on health care, about average for advanced economies and well below America’s 17%, despite a population skewed toward the most medically expensive age group.
"About one in five seniors work, nearly double the average for advanced economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. More than half of Japanese men aged 65 to 69 hold jobs, up from about 40% a decade ago.
"That, combined with more women workers, means the labor force has shrunk less than 1% over the past decade, even as the traditionally defined “working-age population” aged 15 to 64 dropped 8%, according to a June Barclay ’s report.
(d) "Elderly workers are also playing a crucial role filling Japan’s biggest labor shortage—nursing care for the still-older elderly. With unemployment already low, the labor ministry ]Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 厚生労働省] estimates one-seventh of Japan’s unfilled jobs are in the nursing-care sector, a gap that will swell as needs expand.
(e) "Elder workers can only go so far replacing the shrinking number of Japanese half their age. By choice or physical necessity, many put in just a few hours a week. At the Kohitsuji-en こひつじ園 nursing home near Tokyo, its director estimates the 40 part-time senior workers there equal 'three or four' full-time employees.
(f) "In cases where older people simply can’t do the job or aren’t available, Japanese manufacturers are turning to robots, which help them keep costs down and continue growing. Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s largest bank, employs a small robot speaking 19 languages to greet customers * * * while industrial robot maker Fanuc Corp is designing machines that repair each other.
(g) "While new labor patterns and technologies alter the supply side of Japan’s economy, a parallel evolution is changing the demand side * * * Still less than one-third of the population, Japan’s seniors control about 60% of the country’s $14 trillion in household assets and account for about half of consumer spending, with many no longer saving for anything. * * * The elderly are already transforming aspects of Japan’s consumer market. When the government this year reviewed the basket of 588 items in the consumer-price index, it added hearing aids and knee supports, dropping school lunches and tennis-court fees. * * * The silver market has also sparked a boom in home reconstruction, to make residences easier for the elderly to live in. Stores emphasize delivery more: 7-Eleven now takes meals to 730,000 homes, and sees the business doubling every year.
(h) "a falling population has made it harder for families to tend traditional graves. |
发表于 12-4-2015 09:19:35
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