The University of Tokyo has launched an effort to turn the city of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, into a community geared toward the elderly.

Kashiwa will have home care facilities available 24 hours a day, housing complexes that incorporate workplaces, and other facilities designed with the aged in mind.

Current society operates on on a rough assumption that the population makeup is pyramidal, with young people accounting for 30 percent and the aged 5 percent, said Hiroko Akiyama, a professor at the university's Institute of Gerontology. But an inverted pyramid would be more accurate for Japan.