[Senior Trend] The Positive Side of Japan's Super-Aging Society, Disruptive Innovation

Last week, I went on a business trip to Japan. From the moment I arrived at Haneda Airport, there were so many people that I had to stand in line. Compared to my visit last spring, I was surprised by how much more lively everywhere was. A recent article I read in Korea mentioned that Japan has so many elderly people that there is "no one left to mourn and no land left to bury them," but locally, whether at tourist spots or elsewhere, it was bustling everywhere. There were tourists from various countries entering from abroad, international academic delegations attending healthcare and medical device exhibitions, and foreigners who migrated using special systems to alleviate Japan’s labor shortage. Contrary to the locals’ concerns about rising prices, even considering the weak yen, almost all goods and services were cheaper compared to what I experienced in Korea. It was not a gloomy world due to super-aging. Rather, things that would be difficult to attempt if following the traditional customs and ideas known as Japanese style were naturally blending into everyday life.

First, housing repairs were like that. Unlike Korea, which is an apartment republic, Japan has an overwhelming proportion of detached houses, exceeding 80%. While housing demanders prefer new constructions, leading to many new supplies, the government had so far implemented preferential policies such as mortgage tax reductions only for new home buyers, offering almost no benefits for aging houses. Additionally, demolition costs are not trivial, taxes on vacant lots are high, and even if repairs are made, the house value does not increase, making it a complex and difficult problem to solve. According to statistics surveyed every five years by the Japanese government, vacant houses overflow by region, exceeding 8.4 million in 2018, and the 2023 survey expects over 10 million. Although measures such as fines for neglected vacant houses have been introduced, as the increasing numbers became unmanageable, services emerged where repaired vacant houses are sold cheaply to foreigners or utilized as tourist resources. Instead of trying to find solutions domestically (which was attempted but failed), Japan opened its doors to foreigners, and through this, new people are heading to Japan.

Due to a busy schedule, I mainly visited simple soba or ramen shops where Tokyo office workers eat standing up, and I found something interesting. The composition of these restaurants made me think about the working-age population. Almost all places have kiosks at the entrance to take orders. They are made much simpler than in Korea, and if you can read the characters, using them is straightforward. This contrasts with Korea, where senior users have to be trained on kiosks due to dozens of menu options, causing inconvenience. Inside the restaurants, the chefs are mostly Japanese, while kitchen assistants come from countries like the Philippines and Pakistan. When I tried to eat Osaka-style takoyaki in a historic shopping district, the owner was Chinese. Convenience stores in the city cannot open without part-time jobs from foreign international students. Even long-established shops and artisan stores over 100 years old accept passing on their skills to foreign students due to a shortage of Japanese successors. This is a change in Japan, which was once closed off and tradition-focused.

The welfare vocational school near Minami Ikebukuro Park was also impressive. Through a Filipino student, I learned about the curriculum. They learn even small things such as warm greetings for adapting to Japanese life, dining etiquette, and restroom usage. In this way, nursing facilities and caregiving sectors reportedly cannot operate even in Tokyo without foreigners from the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, and others. In fact, they are actively accepting foreign care workers. Korea also had an industrial trainee system that accepted foreigners from developing countries for a limited period to solve chronic labor shortages in rural and provincial areas. Currently, it is integrated and operated under an employment permit system, but the permit quota reached about 60,000 last year. Japan abolished the ‘Technical Intern Training Program,’ which was similar to Korea’s, and since 2019 has expanded the ‘Specified Skilled Worker Visa.’ They are significantly increasing foreign employment only in 12 fields such as nursing care, agriculture, construction, and shipbuilding. According to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, which can be called Japan’s immigration office, the number of holders of the Specified Skilled Worker visa was in the thousands in the first year of implementation but increased to 140,000 by 2022.

Until recently, some far-right Japanese businesspeople and politicians openly expressed extreme superiority and closed-mindedness, calling Japanese “the only Europeans in Asia.” Nevertheless, Japan, which has already entered a super-aging society, is rapidly changing. Innovative institutional changes have permeated everyday life. We should not just lament generationally about demographic changes but actively adopt policies proven effective in Japan or consider how to adapt and implement them to fit Korea’s circumstances.

Eboram, CEO of Third Age