The aging population will cause the medical and nursing-care sector to help generate about one quarter of Japan's gross domestic product in 2015, a think tank under the Japan Medical Association said Wednesday.
The Japan Medical Association Research Institute said the medical and nursing-care sector will be a strong job creator and investment magnet.
The institute made its projection using medical costs, GDP and prices in 1996 as basic data.
The country's medical and nursing-care costs are projected to total about 60.2 trillion yen in 2015, the institute said.
The rise in medical and nursing-care services will contribute to expanding production activities, employment and tax revenue, leading to a ripple effect amounting to 162.6 trillion yen in 2015 -- roughly 24 percent of the nation's estimated 677 trillion yen GDP for the year, it said.
The growth in the sector would also boost jobs in pharmaceuticals, real estate, financial services and power utilities, the institute said.
In fiscal 1997, Japanese spent 29.065 trillion yen on medical services, accounting for 5.6 percent of GDP.
Based on criteria adopted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the ratio of medical costs to GDP stood at 7.2 percent in Japan in 1997, compared with 13.9 percent in the United States, 10.7 percent in Germany and 9.6 percent in France.