1949. The war was over. Slowly, a numbed populace rose from the dead. That year, 2.7 million babies were born — a record high, never surpassed.
Those times seem very distant from us now. The number of births in 2013 was 1.037 million — a record low.
The infants of 1949 turn 65 this year. They are the symbolic link between the postwar baby boom and the increasingly childless present. As they retire en masse, with an average of 21 years of life ahead of them (based on a life expectancy of 86.5 years), who will support their pensions? Decades in the offing, the problem has yet to be solved, or even adequately addressed. "Aging society" has become a familiar, almost knee-jerk description of Japan, but Shukan Post magazine says, "This is Year One of the aging society" — meaning, You ain't seen nothing yet.
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