More on Japan's problem with issuing government debt at sub-1% for 10 years.
Plus, some insight into China's future, especially those that believe it will be the world's largest economy. Hint: it'll be very challenging with a fast-aging population due to social policies of the last few decades.
Bloomberg:
Unicharm Corp.’s (Japan's largest diaper maker) sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies for the first time last year. At Daiei Inc. supermarkets, customers can feel Japan aging -- literally: It has made shopping carts lighter.
...
Japan’s fertility rate is 1.39 for women, compared with 1.93 in the U.S., according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Japan’s population, which peaked in 2005, is poised to shrink to 125.2 million in 2014 from 126.5 million last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
...
The Tokyo-based company said the lessons it’s learning in Japan will help its expansion in China, where the population at or above 65 rose to 8.87 percent of the total as of Nov. 1, 2010, up 1.91 percentage points from the 2000 census. China introduced a one-child policy in 1979 to curb population growth.
“China will necessarily face the aging society at a faster pace than Japan because of the one-child policy,” said Unicharm Chief Executive Officer Takahisa Takahara in April.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-09/elderly-at-record-spurs-japan-stores-chase-1-4-trillion.html
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