Japan
One in 10 Japanese are older than 80: government data
Japan’s aging population surges, with over 10% now aged 80 or older, and a record 29.1% aged 65 or above, leading to workforce challenges and increased elderly care costs.
TOKYO, JAPAN — More than 10 percent of Japanese people have crossed 80 years or older for the first time, new official data showed, as the nation faces a rapidly greying population.
Government data released on Sunday, ahead of Monday’s “Respect for Aged Day” national holiday, also showed that the share of Japan’s population at 65 or older expanded to a record 29.1 percent from 29.0 percent a year ago.
The level compared with second-ranked Italy’s 24.5 percent and third-ranked Finland’s 23.6 percent, according to the internal affairs ministry.
“Japan has the highest percentage of elderly population in the world,” the ministry said in a press release.
For decades, Japan has seen its population shrink and grow older as young people delay marriage and children largely due to unstable jobs and economic difficulties.
As a result, Japan has seen ballooning costs for elderly care with not enough young people to fill jobs and pay for various social and welfare programmes.
The ministry said that with the baby boomer population turning 75 or older, Japan’s 124.4 million people are continuing to grow older.
Around 12.59 million people are 80 or older while 20 million are 75 or older, it said.
As a result, Japan is relying on an elderly labour force.
More than nine million elderly are working, accounting for 13.6 percent of the workforce, or one in seven workers in Japan.
A quarter of all elderly in Japan have jobs, less than South Korea’s 36.2 percent, but far ahead of other developing countries such as the United States at 18.6 percent, and France at 3.9 percent.
More than a third of people between 70 to 74 have jobs in Japan, the data showed.
By 2040, Japan’s elderly population is projected to account for 34.8 percent of the population.
— AFP
Environment
Japanese scientists find microplastics are present in clouds
In Japan, researchers confirm microplastics in clouds, impacting climate. Airborne microplastics, 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers in size, found in cloud water, potentially affecting rapid cloud formation and climate systems.
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Researchers in Japan have confirmed microplastics are present in clouds, where they are likely affecting the climate in ways that aren’t yet fully understood.
In a study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, scientists climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama in order to collect water from the mists that shroud their peaks, then applied advanced imaging techniques to the samples to determine their physical and chemical properties.
The team identified nine different types of polymers and one type of rubber in the airborne microplastics — ranging in size from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers.
Each liter of cloud water contained between 6.7 to 13.9 pieces of the plastics.
What’s more, “hydrophilic” or water-loving polymers were abundant, suggesting the particles play a significant role in rapid cloud formation and thus climate systems.
“If the issue of ‘plastic air pollution’ is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future,” lead author Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University warned in a statement Wednesday.
When microplastics reach the upper atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, they degrade, contributing to greenhouse gasses, added Okochi.
Microplastics — defined as plastic particles under 5 millimeters — come from industrial effluent, textiles, synthetic car tires, personal care products and much more.
These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.
But the mechanisms of their transport have remained unclear, with research on airborne microplastic transport in particular limited.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on airborne microplastics in cloud water,” the authors wrote in their paper.
Emerging evidence has linked microplastics to a range of impacts on heart and lung health, as well as cancers, in addition to widespread environmental harm.
— AFP
Diplomacy
Japanese royal couple in Vietnam to mark 50 years of ties
Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko visit Vietnam, marking 50 years of diplomatic ties.
HANOI, VIETNAM — Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko were welcomed Thursday in Hanoi by lines of flag-waving schoolchildren, as they began a visit marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations.
The royal couple laid wreaths at the mausoleum of late president Ho Chi Minh, before heading to the former home — a traditional stilt house — of the revolutionary leader and feeding fish in a pond outside.
Akishino — the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito — was last in Vietnam, which Japan once occupied, more than two decades ago.
The two nations have maintained close diplomatic and trade ties, with Japan considered one of Vietnam’s most important economic partners.
Close to half a million Vietnamese people are living in Japan, according to Vietnamese state media, citing Japanese government figures.
The couple’s five-day trip will see them tour the central city of Danang, as well as Quang Nam province, where Japanese business people came to trade in the 16th century.
They will also meet the families of former Japanese soldiers who stayed on after World War II to fight for Vietnamese independence from French colonisers.
Vietnam, then part of Indochina, was a French-administered possession of Japan for five years from 1940.
In June, Emperor Naruhito and his wife Masako visited Indonesia, this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
ASEAN and Japan this year also mark 50 years of friendship.
— AFP
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