JAPANESE DEMOGRAPHICS: AGE DISTRIBUTION

By Suzanne Tatikian

General Characteristics of Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Age XXXX

Information/Data on Japan Demographic Age Distribution

Japan is experiencing population aging which is not uncommon to countries which have achieved demographic maturity, with low bith rates, low death rates, and low rates of natural increase. However Japan is moving very rapidly from having one of the most youthful populations amongst the leading industrial countries to one of the most top-heavy age structres. Not evough children are born in Japan to ensure the long-term stability of the population: with a net reproduction rate below one (i.e. fewer than one female child born per woman during her childbearing years), the long-term prospect is for continued decline. On the bright side Japan has the world's lowest infant mortality rate, at just 5 per 1,000 live births, and the longest life expectancy at birth, currently 75.3 years for men, and 81.3 years for women. The three diseases which kill the most in Japan are cancer, heart failure, and cerebrovascular disease. The third of these diseases can be blamed primarily on the high salt intake in the Japanese diet. Due to the rapid ageing of the population there ave been problems as far as pensions and welfare services to the Japanese. Since 1960 all Japanese have been covered by compulsory health insurance. Historically the workplace schemes have provided higher levels of cover than the National Health Insurance Scheme:in1990 they paid 90% of the insured person's medical costs and 70% of a dependent's, compared with the flat-rate 70% in the national scheme. It has long been argued that the support povided by theFapanese family for its members makes a thoroughgoing welfare system unnecessary. Some 70% of old people, for example, live with their children, compared withless than 25% in many Western countries.

In Conclusion Japan is categorized in the INFORMATION AGE as far as age distribution. As other third wave countries Japan is experiencing population aging. Japan is concerned that it faces a problem in the future of probable shortage of population in the working age group. Japan keeps their population controlled since in the past they've had trouble with it.

Additional Online Sources on Japan's Demographic Age Distribution

Traditional Bibliographic Sources on Japan's Demographic Age Distribution

Return to Japan Home Page