One study reckons more than half of Japan’s 1,700 municipalities could vanish by 2040, as young people, especially women, leave
The population of Gojome has shrunk by half since 1990. More than half its residents are over 65, making it one of the oldest towns in Akita, the oldest prefecture in Japan, which is in turn the world’s oldest country. Yet Gojome is less an outlier than a portent. According to the, every country is experiencing growth in the size and proportion of its elderly population; by 2050 one in six people in the world will be over 65, up from one in eleven in 2019.
Part of the challenge is that demographic change affects everyone differently. Two towns or regions may look similar from a distance, but have distinct historical, cultural and environmental conditions; two individuals may be the same age, make the same money and live on the same street, yet have different mental and physical health. “We often miss the context,” says Kudo Shogo of Akita International University.
One issue is how ageing is discussed: as a problem or a burden. “Older people feel they’re not needed by society,” laments Hatakeyama Junko, the 70-year-old head of Akita Partnership, a non-profit that manages a community centre. Longevity is not itself a problem—it should be celebrated. The problems arise when people live long but unhealthy, lonely, or dependent lives.
The other key is staying healthy, physically and mentally. Wiser municipalities focus on preventive care. At the Kadokawa Care Centre, a sleek facility in a former school in Toyama, north-west of Tokyo, septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians splash through a swimming pool and pump away at exercise machines. “If not for this place, I’d be in a nursing home,” gushes Kyoda Taketoshi, an 82-year-old. The socialisation is no less important.
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