Why Japan is the perfect place for 50 year olds

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in order to. A big, round-numbered, and threatening birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Not to give too much away, but the month I was born, Momoe Yamaguchi’s Fuyu no Iro He was picking the tables, Terror of Mechagodzilla Cinemas are about to hit, and Okinawa is busy with last-minute preparations for Exhibition 75.

There are several ways to put this sombre chapter in context. I’m a year younger than Hello Kitty, ten years younger Shinkansen bullet train And 100,000 years younger than Mount Fuji. Although not all of them are afflicted with high cholesterol, rest-rate laxity or miles from the ever-loud missed opportunities, I guess they’re all still going strong.

But I remember, more happily, that this birthday takes place in Japanese old age – where gray is the new black, lambago is the new “lambada” and 50 is not just the new 20, more or less. Middle Ages.

Japan’s candle-at-both-ends demographics have put it on a global trajectory with both care home citizenship and youth erosion. In a crisis that has been referred to simply as the “2025 crisis” by both the public and private sectors, the massive, 8mn-strong post-war baby boom generation born between 1947 and 1949 has moved from the “elderly” category to the “superior”. By 2030, the government predicts, more than 8 million Japanese will play some kind of caregiving role, with 40 percent of those in actual employment.

By the time my generation needs one, the billions of taxpayer yen invested in the development of care robots may finally produce a semi-decent nurse-o-tron. in case

Can’t lose. Starting this year, one in five Japanese will be over 75, and 30 percent of the population will be over 65. Demographics, some economists warn, in The collapse of the property bubble of the 1980s was about to wreak havoc on Japan. No nation on earth is so old in this ratio to the rest of the population and so many obvious questions about how it copes. This peaceful, healthy and well-rounded population has never slowed down. Japan’s numbers are dire economically, socially and existentially, but they don’t make half a 50-year-old feel young.

And also, as another member of the middle age group, in theory, all I have to do to deal with the caregiving frailties of age is to stay in Japan and hope the statistics take care of the practical side.

For example, I should be healthy on paper. In the year In 2023, after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan resumes its multi-decade lifespan. Japanese women lead the world with an average life expectancy of 87.14 years, but according to the Ministry of Health’s table, a man my age can live for 32.6 years.

The averages suggest that I will also move. Hitting one’s half-century in Japan, they enter the large “over-50s” segment of the population, which statistically accounts for 66 percent of the country’s $7tn in cash and deposits. That part now inherits the old estate, which is very old.

And in general, being 50 makes you disproportionately political in Japan. Even in a country that is already a silver democracy, there are more 50-year-olds than any other group, and the country has delivered a masterclass in matching electoral mathematics with Master Plus. Dotage is votage.

In Japan, the over-50s are the last generation to benefit from government spending (in education, health care, etc.) throughout their lifetime, according to the Ministry of Finance. All youth is in the red and the heat of the universe lasts until death. And the fringe benefits are just as good. By the time my generation needs one, the billions of taxpayer yen invested in the development of care robots may finally produce a semi-decent nurse-o-tron. in case.

All of this, except for the longevity, is obviously very unfortunate. Promoting healthy and happy aging is clearly a good thing. But there is an accumulated financial (260 percent gross national debt to GDP ratio) and emotional (taking care of mom and dad) burden on the younger generation that has quietly supported this and is now absolutely terrifying.

This is why Japan is perfect for turning 50 for all the wrong reasons. As a country, it is not only aging but also a global pioneer. In an aging society, we are all getting older technically. Relatively speaking.

Leo Lewis is the FT’s Tokyo bureau chief.

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