Japan has a problematic age gap: 100,000-plus residents are over 100 and the pension system is buckling
When paired with Japan’s record-low fertility rates, the number of centenarians is creating a host of fiscal problems.
For the first time in its history, Japan has more than 100,000 people over the age of 100, and nearly 90% of them are women. The surge of centenarians is straining the country’s resources and making the male/female ratio at senior home mixers impossibly unbalanced.
To put the official total of 107,677 into context, that’s enough 100-year-olds to nearly fill AT&T Stadium in Dallas. When paired with Japan’s record-low fertility rates, the number of centenarians, which has risen for 56 straight years, is creating a host of fiscal problems:
To supplement its withering workforce, Japan is recruiting care workers from abroad. After reaching 66,000 last year under a skilled-worker visa program, the government will now allow nearly three times that many under a new foreign-aid worker plan despite its usually strict immigration policies., DL
