Elderly aged 80 or over top 8 mil. for 1st time in Japan+

TOKYO, Sept. 19 Kyodo -
The estimated number of elderly aged 80 or older topped the 8 million mark for
the first time in Japan as the fast-graying country sees a record-high 23.1
percent of the population aged 65 or above as of Wednesday, the internal
affairs ministry said in a report released Sunday.
The estimated number of elderly aged 65 or older came to 29.44 million, also a
record high, by increasing 460,000 from a year earlier, with its ratio among
the population of about 127 million up 0.4 percentage point. The estimate was
released prior to the Respect-for-the-Aged Day holiday on Monday.
The estimate, based on results of the every-five-years national census in 2005
and the births and deaths since reported to municipalities, is unlikely to be
affected by the recent tally that 234,354 people registered as centenarians are
unaccounted for across Japan, because it is not based on resident registries, a
ministry official said.
Of the total number of the elderly, 12.58 million were men, comprising 20.3
percent of all men in the population, topping 20 percent for the first time,
and 16.85 million were women, at 25.8 percent of all women, the Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Those aged 80 or above have grown about 22 times in number over the past six
decades from 370,000 in 1950.
The ratio of people aged 65 or older who still have a job is also on the rise,
with 5.65 million at work last year, of whom 3.19 million were employees,
including 1.58 million part-timers and other nonregular workers which increased
by 620,000 from 2004.
Among households with more than one member, the average savings for those whose
heads are 65 or older totaled 23.05 million yen last year, compared with 13.27
million yen for those whose heads are younger.
The proportion of households possessing personal computers was 56.3 percent for
the elderly households against 84.3 percent for younger ones, while the
corresponding figures for mobile phones come to 81.2 percent and 97.6 percent,
the ministry said.
==Kyodo
2010-09-19 22:19:09