At the 2019 G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan – an annual meeting of 19 countries and the European Union to discuss major issues in the global economy – the world’s top policymakers announced that an ageing global population is the next big problem our international community will need to tackle.
It makes sense that this issue was raised in Japan, which is home to a rapidly ageing population. As we’ve said here before, the country even sells more nappies for adults than for babies!
Japan’s Finance Minister, Taro Aso, says it’s important that other countries get ahead of ageing before it becomes a major economic problem, with many nations (us included!) already seeing longer life expectancy and reduced birth rates.
In fact, by 2050, the world is projected to have more than two billion people aged over 60 – more than double the number in 2017.
But experts are warning that many economies aren’t updating their pension schemes, employment and healthcare services or workforce to handle this.
Many young people in Japan are even concerned that a senior’s pension may not even exist by the time they retire – a worry that our younger Aussies are familiar with.
So, while the Royal Commission continues working on how to make our aged care sector better for our older Mums and Dads, the Government should also be looking at how to expand those other services – because we’ll need a lot more of them over the next 30 years.
