Japan faces economic headache from ageing population http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST20992820070912?sp=true
Wed Sep 12, 2007
By Linda Sieg
TOKYO (Reuters) - When Yutaka Takahashi strolls around his neighborhood in Japan's capital, he sometimes wonders where all the children have gone. "When we were young, it seemed as if there were kids all over. Now it seems as if there are only elderly people like me," said the 67-year-old retired oil company manager -- neither of whose 30-something offspring have children of their own.
Already, one in five Japanese are aged 65 or over and by mid-century a falling birth rate and rising longevity mean that figure will nearly double, while the population will drop by 30 percent to 90 million. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST20992820070912?sp=true