TOKYO: The population of people aged 65 and over in Japan was estimated at 36.25 million as of Sunday, up by 20,000 from a year earlier and hitting a record high, the internal affairs ministry said ahead of Monday’s Respect for the Aged Day.

Such elderly people accounted for 29.3 percent of the country’s total population, up by 0.2 percentage points and also a record high.

The elderly population included 15,72 million men, or 26.1 percent of the total male population, and 20.53 million women, or 32.3 percent of the female population.

The proportion of people aged 65 and over has been increasing since the 1950s. It is expected to reach 34.8 percent in 2040, when the country’s second baby boomers, or those born between 1971 and 1974, will have joined that age group, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

In 2023, the number of workers aged 65 and over rose for the 20th straight year to a record 9.14 million. Of them, 1.32 million were in the wholesale and retail sector, 1.07 million in the medical and welfare sector and 1.04 million in the service sector.

Of all workers aged 15 and over, those aged 65 and over accounted for 13.5 percent, down by 0.1 point.

Of the population aged 65 and over, 25.2 percent had a job, unchanged from the previous year.

JIJI Press