essay-Old Japan

https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2024/11/20/this-is-the-year-japan-will-really-start-to-feel-its-age

My version

   2025 may be a hard year for Japan. It is widely known that Japan is a greying society. However, in 2025, Japan’s baby boomers will reach more than 75, which will raise the problem to a new height.

  Japanese elders generally look more energetic. It is widely thought that people aged between 65 and 74 are not so “old”. More than half of those aged 65-69 and over 1/3 of those aged 70-74 are employed. Many of them live independently, and just 3% of them require health care. However, after the threshold of 75, their employment rate drops sharply, while the needs for health care increase, to 12% for those less than 85 and more than 40% after.

 Thus, it is not hard to imagine what is impending for Japan. The growth in ever-creakier old folks will ripple through Japan’s social-security system, pushing up health and pension costs while tax base shrinks. As energetic elders might be, combined with fewer and fewer children, the age structure of all is hard to be optimistic.

 The Japanese government is taking measures. More and more care facilities are established, and restrictions for caretakers are loosened. A pension overhaul is also coming in 2025. But broader reform is also needed. Sometimes I am always amazed by the degree of similarity of Japan’s society and China’s that many achievements and paths as well as problems experienced by Japan are showing for China。