29.4% of Japan’s Population Is Aged 65 or Older... 53.6% of Those Aged 65-69 Are Employed

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications:
"Number of Working Elderly Expected to Continue Rising"

According to reports by Kyodo News and NHK on September 14, three out of every ten people in Japan are aged 65 or older, and more than half of those aged 65 to 69 are employed.

According to population estimates compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan ahead of Respect for the Aged Day (September 15), the population aged 65 and over stands at 36.19 million, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous year. This marks the second consecutive year, following 2023, that the elderly population has declined since comparable statistics became available in 1950. The proportion of elderly people within the total population has reached a record high of 29.4%.

An elderly person delivering a parcel in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

As the number of people working later in life increases, the employment rate among the elderly population rose to 25.7% last year, up 0.5 percentage points from the previous year. The number of employed elderly individuals reached a record high of 9.3 million, marking the 21st consecutive year of increase. In particular, the employment rate for those aged 65 to 69 was 53.6%, for those aged 70 to 74 it was 35.1%, and for those aged 75 and over it was 12.0%.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications projected that the number of elderly people in the workforce will continue to grow due to factors such as the extension of the retirement age and ongoing labor shortages.