Young people worried about having to shoulder an unfair share of the social security burden in this rapidly aging society may be able to breathe a little easier.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Rather than 'debts,' the elderly can be considered 'latent assets' in society, according to a recent study by Naohiro Ogawa, director of Population Research Institute at Nihon University in Tokyo.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'The elderly have become wealthy thanks to a –

pension. If they have money enough to spare, they give the spillover to their children's families," Ogawa said. "So the elderly have played a key role as a safety net in Japanese society."

Ogawa's study took into account the national transfer accounts system, which was devised two years ago by a group of researchers led by two American economics professors.

It is a new framework to measure economic flows across age groups.

Specifically, the system looks at how economic resources are reallocated from working generations, who produce more than they consume, to their children and the elderly.