Respecting the 28.98 million ‘Aged’

Written By: guyjin on September 21, 2009 2 Comments

About a week and a half ago, I had the story here about the number of Japanese people aged over 100 passing 40,000. I mentioned at the time, in passing, that about 20% of all Japanese people were aged over 65.

Today, in commemoration of the annual ‘Respect for the Aged Day’ (敬老の日), the government estimates that one in four women in this country are 65 years of age or older. According to the World Health Organization, there are 28.98 million ‘aged’ people in Japan, with 16.59 million of them being women (25.4% of the total population of women), and 12.39 million men (19.9% of the total population of men). The number of people aged over 70 is 20.6 million, while the number over 80 is 7.89 million. These numbers are all increases over the year before, and represent record highs.

Respect for the Aged day apparently grew out of a Hyogo town which proclaimed Spetember 15 ‘Old Folks Day’ (年寄りの日) in 1947. This gained national popularity and eventually was adopted in 1966 as a national holiday with its current name. The holiday used to be on September 15, but since 2003 it has been held on the third Monday in September, to give workers a long weekend.

Sources:

Japan Today: 1 in 4 Women in Japan now Aged 65 or Older

Wiki: Respect for the Aged Day