At a glance:

• In Japan, people aged 50 and over already accounted for more than 2 in 5 workers (40% of the workforce) in 2017 – this could rise to 47% by 2035.
• More than 3 in 5 Yen in the Japanese economy were spent by older households (those led by people aged 50 and older) in 2015; amounting to 21% of GDP.
• The value of unpaid contributions by older people in Japan, such as volunteering and caring. equate to 1% of GDP – just under a third of Japan’s spending on education.

We’ve become accustomed to ageing populations being presented as a bad thing. But far from being a cost or drain on public resources, older people’s social and economic impact is significant.

But it could be much higher if we remove avoidable barriers to working, spending, caring and volunteering, with the most important being poor health.

We know that countries that invest more in health see more people working, spending and volunteering and that investment in prevention drives a return. Spending just 0.1 percentage points more on preventative health can unlock an additional 9% in spending by older consumers and an average of 10 additional hours of volunteering across the G20.

In this report, we highlight the economic contributions of older people in the Japan today and what more could be done to unlock a longevity dividend over the years to come, which could be instrumental in the post-COVID recovery.

To achieve this, we call on the Government of Japan to adopt an Ageing Society New Deal that sees spend on prevention raised to 6% of health budgets, alongside greater support for older people’s paid and unpaid contributions.