Tag - elderly

 
 

ELDERLY

Liberal Democratic Party executives at a General Council meeting on Tuesday at the party's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Politics
May 14, 2025
LDP approves pension reform legislation
The government aims to adopt the legislation at a Cabinet meeting Friday and submit it to the current session of the Diet, the country's parliament.
Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
May 12, 2025
What comes after 100?
The number of Japanese centenarians is on the rise, providing new models for how to live in a super-aging society.
Deceptive contractors prey on elderly homeowners and pressure them into signing contracts by making claims such as, "If you leave it unchanged, your house will tilt."
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
May 8, 2025
Japan struggles to crack down on home renovation scams
A senior police official said the rise in fraudulent renovation work is largely due to a legal loophole over small-scale construction work.
The health ministry and some municipalities are turning to spot workers to solve the labor shortage in the nursing care industry.
JAPAN / Society
May 5, 2025
More nursing care facilities in Japan embrace 'spot work' amid labor shortage
The demand for care providers is expected to rise to around 2.4 million by fiscal 2026 and about 2.72 million by fiscal 2040.
A survey by a labor union of home care business operators and care managers found that nearly 90% of facility managers had turned down service requests at least once during the past year, citing insufficient staffing.
JAPAN
May 5, 2025
Worker shortage forcing home care providers to turn away clients, survey finds
In the survey, 19.3% of care managers said some older adults are being left without any care at all due to a worker shortage.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura says he hopes the prefecture's new rule prohibiting older people from using ATMs while talking on phones becomes widely known and eventually accepted as common sense.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 24, 2025
Osaka to ban older people from using ATMs while on the phone to help stop scams
While the ban does not include penalties, the Osaka prefectural government hopes to build public consensus to help prevent scams.
Yumi Watanabe (right), head of the residents' association of the Tsubamesawa public housing complex in Sendai, delivers a meal to a resident.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 21, 2025
Disaster public housing complexes in Sendai work to boost interactions
Residents are working with volunteers to organize a children’s cafeteria and other events.
Visitors walk atop the Grand Ring at Expo 2025 in Osaka on April 13.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 20, 2025
Digitalized Osaka Expo troubling elderly visitors
Under the Expo's digital and paperless policies, visitors are asked to use devices such as smartphones to make reservations and navigate the massive venue.
Out of 200,000 people who died at home alone in Japan during 2024, 76% were ages 65 or older, according to police.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 13, 2025
Some 58,000 elderly people died alone at home in 2024: police
The data collected will be used by the government to tackle the issue of how to support people becoming isolated from society.
To sustain growth, emerging and developing economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation (especially among women) and build stronger social support systems.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025
Emerging economies must get rich before they get old
To sustain growth, emerging economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation — especially among women — and build stronger social support systems.
High school student Soa Ono, 17, assists an elderly woman during a recreational activity at a nursing care facility in Nagoya in late February.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 7, 2025
Caregiver apprenticeship for high school students expanding in Aichi
The program allows apprentices to earn an income while acquiring knowledge and skills through hands-on experience.
Aichi police investigate the scene of an accident where a passenger car barreled through a busy section of downtown Nagoya on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 1, 2025
Seven people injured after car runs into pedestrians in Nagoya
Police arrested the car's driver, a woman in her 70s, at the scene on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in injury.
Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Mar 31, 2025
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
A growing industry quietly erases the final traces of those who die alone, exposing deep societal fractures.
An 81-year-old apple farmer who lost her crop walks past the remains of her neighbors' homes after a wildfire swept through the area, in Andong, South Korea, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 30, 2025
South Korea's 'heartbreaking' wildfires expose superaged society
The inferno has also laid bare South Korea's demographic crisis and regional disparities.
Currently, banks voluntarily set the upper limit on cash withdrawals from ATMs at ¥500,000 per day, with no legal regulations.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025
Japan eyes ¥300,000 limit on daily ATM use for elderly
Currently, banks voluntarily set the upper limit on cash withdrawals from ATMs at ¥500,000 per day, with no legal regulations.
By promoting healthier aging through measures to extend workforce participation, increase social engagement and improve health care systems, Asia’s policymakers could create a “silver demographic dividend” that helps to sustain the region’s economic dynamism.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2025
Reaping Asia’s silver demographic dividend
Concerns that older workers are not as productive as their younger counterparts are overblown.
Yoshiaki Nakano (center), head of the Mebuki residents’ association, comprising residents of the Moniwa No. 2 municipal-run housing complex in Sendai’s Taihaku Ward, addresses a board meeting on Feb. 2.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 10, 2025
Public housing residents' associations in Sendai struggle to find leaders
Those age 65 and older account for 43.9% of the residents in such housing, 18.7 percentage points higher than the ratio of elderly in the city.
Kesa Hatamoto, a 102-year-old Japanese woman who is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest pharmacist, speaks during an interview on Jan. 28 in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025
At 102, world's oldest pharmacist celebrates her calling
"There's nothing happier than having a job for a lifetime. I want to continue my career forever," says Kesa Hatamoto.
Yarn shortages are a sign that hobbies like knitting and crochet are gaining in popularity.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 4, 2025
‘Granny hobbies’ are the new self-care
Pastimes long associated with Japanese grandparents are booming on social media as young people look for new (old) ways to relax.
AIREC, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven humanoid robot, demonstrates a maneuver for changing diapers or preventing bedsores in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 1, 2025
AI robots may hold key to nursing Japan's aging population
Japan is the world's most advanced aging society with a falling birth rate, dwindling working-age population and restrictive immigration policies.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?