Why Japan is the perfect place to turn 50

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As a result. A big, big and scary birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Not to give too much away, but on the month I was born, by Momoe Yamaguchi Fuyu no Iro it topped the charts, Fear of Mechagodzilla was about to open, and Okinawa was busy with last-minute preparations for Expo ’75.

There are different ways to put this sombre point into context. I’m a year younger than Hello Kitty, ten years older Shinkansen gun train and 100,000 years older than Mount Fuji. All of them are still strong, I think that, although no one is worried about high cholesterol, the weakness of the resting rate or pressing up from the milometer of the changed opportunities.

But then I remember, even more happily, that this birthday will happen in creaking, aging Japan – a country where gray is the new black, lumbago is the new “Lambada” and 50 is not just 20 new, but more or less. middle age.

Japan’s population of two candles puts it at the forefront of the world of domestic care and youth erosion. In a crisis that the public and private sectors are now calling the “2025 crisis”, a large, powerful generation of 8mn post-war baby boomers born between 1947 and 1949 has left the “elderly” category. “go ahead”. the elderly”. By 2030, the government predicts, more than 8 million Japanese will be doing some part of care, 40 percent of those above the real job.

By the time my generation needs one, the billions of taxpayer yen invested in the development of robotic caregivers may have produced the infamous Nurse-o-tron. Maybe

It’s impossible to go wrong. As of this year, one in five Japanese will be over 75 and about 30 percent of the population will be over 65. Some economists warn that demographics are about to wreak havoc on Japan like the 1980s financial crisis. No population on Earth has ever aged at this rate for the entire population and with these many open questions about how it will deal with this situation. No such peaceful, healthy and well-fed population has ever declined at such a rate. Japan’s statistics are alarming economically, socially and existentially, but they don’t make a 50-year-old feel young.

And also being just another member of the old age group, in theory, all I need to do to fight underage is to live in Japan and hopefully the statistics will notice the active side.

For example, on paper, I should be fine. In 2023, after a three-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan began its multi-year process of advancing life expectancy. Japanese women lead the world in life expectancy with a life expectancy of 87.14 years, but, according to health department charts, a man my age can expect to live another 32 years, 6.

The averages suggest I’ll be getting into it too. When you arrive in Japan in your fifties, you join the large “over 50” segment that statistically accumulates about 66 percent of the country’s $7tn income and deposits. That segment will now inherit a very old resort for the elderly.

And in general, being 50 years old makes you a bad political influence in Japan. Even in a fully democratized region there are more 50-year-olds than any other age group, and the country has given masterclass after masterclass comparing budgets and voting numbers. . Dotage is optional.

People over the age of 50 in Japan are the last generation that, according to the financial sector, has been a lifelong beneficiary of the country’s money (in terms of education, health care, etc.). Every little one is red and will remain so until the heat of the universe dies. And the peripheral perks are nice too. By the time my generation needs one, the billions of taxpayer yen invested in the development of robotic caregivers may have produced the infamous Nurse-o-tron. Maybe.

All of these, apart from rising life expectancy, are obviously negative things. The promotion of healthy, happy aging is an obvious benefit. But there is a financial burden (a ratio of 260 percent of the national debt to GDP) and an emotional (who will take care of mom and dad) burden accumulated for the new generations that have supported this through silence and now it looks terrifyingly unbearable.

And ultimately that’s why Japan, for all the wrong reasons, is the perfect place to turn 50. As a nation, it’s a world pioneer not only in aging, but in the deception of its people. so many comforters that it can escape. In an aging society, we are all still young. When we talk.

Leo Lewis is the FT’s Tokyo bureau chief

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