In yet another sign the Japanese population is getting older, one in four women is now 65 or older, while one out of almost every five men is reaching that milestone, according to a government estimate ahead of Respect for the Elderly Day on Monday.
Elderly people — or those at least 65 years old, according to the World Health Organization — numbered 28.98 million as of Sept. 15, up 800,000 from a year ago, accounting for 22.7 percent of Japan's population.
The total is the highest since 1950, when comparable data was first kept, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
The number of elderly women totaled 16.59 million, forming 25.4 percent of all women in Japan, while elderly men numbered 12.39 million, accounting for 19.9 percent of the male population.
The number of people aged 70 or older increased 440,000 to 20.60 million, while the number of people aged 80 or older grew 390,000 to 7.89 million.
As of October 2008, 18.21 million households, or 36.7 percent of all households, had at least one elderly person.
Of them, 4.14 million were comprised of only one elderly person, more than a four-fold increase from 980,000 in 1983, when the government started compiling such statistics.