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Healthymagination Studies Japan’s Aging Population

By Healthymagination Team | Posted June 2 2010

Japan is currently facing a fast-growing demographic challenge: It’s one of the world’s most rapidly aging countries and also has a low birth rate. That situation creates problems both in healthcare for the aged and in sustaining economic growth despite a shrinking population. However, there is potential to turn the negatives into significant opportunities. It’s why the Government of Japan has identified healthcare as a driver of future economic growth and positioned it as a pillar of its new growth strategy. It’s also why GE commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit — which is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist magazine — to study the problem.

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Their just-issued report, From Silver to Gold: The Implications of Japan’s Ageing Population, was one of the key themes at yesterday’s GE Healthymagination Day 2010, which was held in Tokyo to mark the first anniversary of GE’s new business strategy.

Japan’s population, which began to decline in 2005, is now expected to decline from 127.5 million in 2009 to below 120 million by 2025 and to 90 million by 2055. At the same time, the country’s 27 million elderly — those aged over 65 — will account for more than one-third (33.7%) of the total population by 2035 and for one out of every 2.5 people by 2055.

GE Healthcare Japan President and CEO Akihiko Kumagai said Japan’s work on these tough issues can pave the way for others. By “establishing the organizational frameworks and advanced systems necessary to solve the problems that come with a rapidly ageing society, we will be able to provide other countries with ageing populations with a model for success,” he said.

As The Wall Street Journal noted in its story on the conference, “[GE Chairman and CEO Jeff] Immelt told the audience that Japan has an opportunity to be a leader in creating smaller medical devices to enable treatment of chronic diseases in homes instead of hospitals. This will help to lower overall health-care costs, especially as medical breakthroughs change once-deadly diseases to chronic illnesses…. “Because of the aging population, [Jeff told the audience] this could be the economy that develops the devices and the protocols of how to really do home health care.”

You can view portions of GE Healthymagination Day 2010 in English here: Part 1 Part 2

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