Japan’s drugmakers find rich pickings elusive
Japan’s ageing population is having a surprising effect on the country’s drug companies
Resources
Japanese companies, from financial services to technology, must respond to the challenges presented by an ageing populace. In this series we explore the way in which they are creating products for - and marketing them to - elderly consumers
FT Series
Fireflies and seminars: how banks court Japan’s older investors
Part Three: Finance. Japan’s biggest savers are an ageing generation that is still wary of investing its assets
Cyberdyne makes first steps into a new robotics boom
Part Two: Robotics. ‘Assistance robots’ are at the forefront of what Japan’s government hopes will be a vast new industry
Japanese shoppers never retire from aspiration
Part Four: Consumers. Adjustments by companies as buyers age will offer lessons to businesses outside Japan
Related content and features
DPJ pins hope on next generation
If Japan’s opposition Democratic party wins power this month, it intends to spend up to Y5,500bn a year on child allowances that it hopes will encourage couples to have more offspring
Japan’s DPJ pledges radical social reform
Riding high in opinion polls ahead of next month’s general election, the opposition Democratic party has launched a campaign manifesto promising dramatic administrative reform
Japan mulls investment fund to tackle ageing crisis
Japan is considering establishing a special state investment fund - modelled on Singapore's Temasek - to manage part of its $909bn in foreign exchange reserves
Comment & Analysis
Japan’s fiscal frailty
Japan: Whichever party wins the election this month will have to contend with an ageing population and a mountain of debt – which together threaten to derail Asia’s largest economy
Fewer Japanese should not be seen as a tragedy
The future has arrived slightly quicker than expected in Japan with the news that, for the first time since records started in 1950, the country's male population fell
The A to Z of ageing
We’re all going to die, but the 20th century did a very good job of helping us put it off. Life-expectancy data teaches us about getting old and living longer
A small proposal for an ageing Japan
There are many couples who cannot produce babies and they should be encouraged to adopt, which is where China could be helpful, writes Robert Dunn, professor of economics at the George Washington University.
