Doctors have come up with a novel idea to help Japan keep pace with its rapidly ageing population: raising the definition of senior citizen to those aged 75 years and older.



A leading campaigner said the commonly accepted 65-year threshold is “terribly outdated” and needs to be lifted to take account of longer life expectancy and changing social attitudes to ageing.

Dr Yasuyoshi Ouchi, the former chairman of the Japan Geriatrics Society, said the proposal was not meant to give political cover for increasing the pension age. Instead, people in their late 60s should be afforded greater flexibility to continue working or volunteering for community groups if they wished to do so.

“Those who feel that they are still healthy when they reach 60 or 65 are forced to retire, and that means those who are used to supporting others become those who need to be supported by others instead,” Ouchi told an audience at the Foreign Press Centre Japan on Tuesday. “We think this kind of treatment is so outdated.”

Under the proposals advanced by a joint committee of the Japan Gerontological Society and the Japan Geriatrics Society, people aged 65-74 would be classified as pre-old age and those over 75 would be in the old age category. People who have passed their 90th birthday would be described as “super-old”.

Japan has long grappled with demographic challenges as older people increasingly represent a greater share of a declining population. The proportion of the population that is over 65 is projected to rise from 27% to 38% in 2065.



This poses budgetary challenges as dwindling numbers of working-age taxpayers will need to support greater demands on health and care services. In 2015, one senior citizen was supported by an average of 2.3 workers, but this ratio is expected to be one senior to 1.3 workers by 2065, according to official data.

Ouchi, the president of Toranomon hospital in Tokyo, said Japan’s ageing population was sometimes portrayed in a negative light, but he saw a vibrant future in which older people were empowered to contribute to society if they still had the desire and ability to do so.

He pointed to a cabinet office survey showing that about 5% of respondents considered someone over 65 to be old. He also cited evidence of “rejuvenation” in the health of older people in Japan in the past few decades.

For example, while the risk of stroke increases as people get older, there was an overall decline in the rates among 65 to 79-year-olds between 1995 and 2010. Another study found an increase in older people’s walking speed and grip strength between 1992 and 2002, with the latter phenomenon most pronounced among women.

“We believe that 75-year-old mark is quite appropriate because we can see from clinical experience that usually 75 years of age will present a major turning point,” Ouchi said, adding that individual differences and diversity needed to be respected.

One of Japan’s foremost advocates of positive ageing, Shigeaki Hinohara, died on Tuesday aged 105. The honorary head of St Luke’s International hospital in Tokyo had continued practising medicine after he turned 100.

Hinohara was a prolific lecturer who often called on older people to maintain an active social life and take control of their destiny. He was among 65,692 centenarians living in Japan last year – a record high.

Japan’s population is projected to decline from 127 million in 2015 to 88 million by 2065, but the over-65 segment is likely to increase from about 34 million now to a peak of 39 million by the 2040s, before slipping back to 34 million in 2065.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research’s projections assume “medium” rates of fertility and mortality, with the long-term life expectancy of men set at 84.95 years and women at 91.35 years.

While longer lifespans are positive, health services are also bracing for an increase in the number of people with dementia. Japan’s ministry of health, labour and welfare predicts that about 7 million – or 20% of over-65s – will have the condition in 2025, Kyodo News reported.

There have also been concerns about a surge in traffic accidents involving older drivers, prompting some creative thinking about policy solutions. Under a scheme launched last year in Aichi prefecture in central Japan, older drivers who surrender their licences are given discounts on ramen noodles at 176 restaurants.

Emperor Akihito, 83, triggered a debate last year about the rigours of old age when he signalled his desire to abdicate, thinking he would find it difficult to continue to perform official duties. Last month, parliament passed a one-off law that will allow him to become the country’s first emperor in more than 200 years to quit.