Rapid Population Aging and Changing Intergenerational Transfers in Japan

Abstract

Primarily because the fertility transition in a number of Asian countries, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, has been considerably shorter than in the developed countries, the speed of population aging in Asia has been and will be substantially faster than that observed among the industrialized nations in Europe. In the post-World War II period, Japans fertility decline was the earliest to occur not only in Asia but also in the world. In addition, it was also the greatest in magnitude among all the industrialized nations.