While the Japanification of markets has been a much-discussed topic in recent years, the two nations share another disturbing trend. In 2012, the land of the rising sun saw sales of adult diapers exceed those of baby diapers... and as the following chart from The Wall Street Journal shows, that trend is rapidly occurring in the land of the free...

As The Wall Street Journal notes,

“Procter & Gamble Co. is getting back into a business it exited more than a decade ago—making products for adults suffering from incontinence—as it takes aim at the growing ranks of aging Americans.

Births peaked in the U.S. at 4.32 million in 2007 and declined for five years before leveling off recently. Some 3.96 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.

The number was up slightly from 2012, but the country’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 62.9 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age.

Meanwhile, over 3 million Americans are now turning 65 each year, according to the Pew Research Center.”