The biggest issue in Japan is aging population. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan’s average life expectancy has continued to increase, and Japan finally became one of the leading nations in terms of long-life expectancy. The average in life expectancy in 2018 was 81.25 years for men and 87.32 years for women. It is expected that life expectancy will reach 84.95 years for men and 91.35 years for women by 2065. The percentage of people aged 65 and older has also been increasing. It was 28.4% in 2019 and is expected to reach 33.3% in 2036 and 38.4% in 2065. Some companies are taking advantage of this situation and start new businesses for elderly people.

According to the Japan times article “More of Japan’s elderly using internet to gather health information,” on May 24, 2023, over 50% of 65 or older people in Japan use the internet mainly for getting health information such as medical institutions and health disorders. Following this fact, the health disorders were cited by 39.0%, up from 13.6%, and medical institutions by 30.1%, up from 8.2%. While more and more use of the internet is in demand, most of the elderly people struggle with its use at first. To solve this problem, there are some classes and events to teach them how to use phones by mobile phone companies. Businesses which are needed by elderly people will grow in the future. 

Source:

Measures to Address Japan’s Aging Society | February 2021 | Highlighting Japan (gov-online.go.jp)

More of Japan’s elderly using internet to gather health information – The Japan Times

Writer: Sakura

Japan has no laws prohibiting racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination, or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Japan does not have a national human rights institution. 

Women’s Rights

Protests occurred across Japan this year because rape cases were resulted in acquittals. Prosecutors have to prove that violence or intimidation was involved, or that the victim couldn’t be resistant in the case of Japanese rape law. In one case, a court acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter, although the court recognized that the sex was non-consensual and that he had been physically and sexually abusing the victim since she was younger. 

Children’s Rights 

In June 2023, the congress revised laws to ban corporal punishment against children by parents and other guardians. The law also started the review process to create mechanisms to protect children’s rights following several fatal cases of abuse in the name of discipline. 

Labor Rights 

In May, the parliament enacted legislation that requires corporations to implement measures to prevent power harassment as early as April 2020 for large businesses and April 2022 for medium-to-small businesses. 

Source: World Report 2023: Japan | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

Writer: Sakura

According to the Japantimes article “What to expect from Japan’s economy in 2023” on January 3, 2023, Japan faced challenges like a historic plunge in the yen’s value against the U.S. dollar and decades-high inflation last year. Although it started global economic activities again which was stopped because the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still two key economic issues in Japan, which is inflation, wage hikes.  

Firstly, Japanese yen plummeted past the ¥150 mark to the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1990 because of the Russia-Ukraine war and the historic slide of the yen. In January last year, core consumer prices excluding volatile fresh food rose a mere 0.2% from a year earlier, but by November that figure had reached a nearly 41-year high of 3.7%. This price hikes promoted the government to take some measures to reduce the impact of it. The government will also provide subsidies to contain the rise of electricity and gas bills. 

Secondly, a series of price hikes last year strengthened the calls for wage hikes, which has been one of the structural issues plaguing the Japanese economy. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation called “Rengo” set a goal of pay hike to 5%, which is the highest level in 28 years. For the past seven years, Rengo had demanded increases of around 4%. However, economists say an average 5% raise is unlikely, adding that if labor and management agree to a raise of 3% or more it would be seen as a positive result. In contrast, Daiju Aoki, chief Japan economist at UBS Sumi Trust Wealth Management said, “I think it will be difficult to achieve an over 3% pay hike.” He said it will probably be somewhere around 2.5% to nearly 3%, which would still be the largest hike in years. 

writer: Sakura 

Source:  

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/01/03/business/economy-business/japan-economic-outlook-2023/ 

According to the Japan times article “Report on overwork highlights Japan’s work-life balance issues,” on Octorber13, 2023, many workers in Japan struggle with lack of sleep because of the hard work. There are more possibilities to suffer from health issues like daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating and digestive and intestinal disorders, not to mention mental disorders such as depression and anxiety if the gap between the amount of sleep people want and the amount they get is bigger. Although over 90% of workers feel they need at least six hours of sleep a night, only about half of nearly 10,000 who were surveyed said they are getting that much sleep. In the research, 35.5% said they are sleeping for between five and six hours per night, followed by 35.2% who said they get between six and seven hours of sleep. While another 15.7% said they get between seven and eight hours, and 3.5% said they get even more than that, 10% said they sleep less than five hours. Considering this fact, health ministry officials are trying more employers to absolutely get enough sleep by setting measures such as minimum hours of rest and recuperation between shifts which is called work interval system. However, there is also a problem that the requirement is not legally binding, and the government does not spell out a specific number of hours for the interval. 

Source: Report on overwork highlights Japan’s work-life balance issues – The Japan Times