Diaper change: Japan’s aging society is transforming the baby care business

Hong Kong CNN —

The world’s population is getting older in what the United Nations calls an “irreversible global trend,” driven by longer lives and smaller families.

The number of people aged 65 and older is expected to more than double to 1.6 billion globally by 2050, according to a UN report published last year.

In Japan, this change is threatening one of the world’s largest economies as the percentage of older people grows and fewer couples have children.

In early June, the country said the number of babies born fell for the eighth straight year, hitting a record low of 727,277 births in 2023 since Japan started compiling data more than 120 years ago.

A few months earlier, Japan said that one in 10 people were aged 80 or older, making it the oldest country in the world. Last year, almost 30% of the Japanese population was 65 or older.

In June 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled a multi-billion dollar package of measures to encourage families to have more children. Japan is trying to tackle a demographic crisis that could impact pension funding and health care as the workforce shrinks and demand from the aging population surges.

The growth of the older population is also changing the consumer product market.

Demand for adult diapers in Japan has been rising, while the need for baby diapers has fallen.

The global market value for adult diapers was pegged at $12.8 billion in 2023, according to market research provider Euromonitor International. It is expected to reach almost $15.5 billion by 2026. In Japan, the adult diaper market stood at $1.7 billion in 2023, and is expected to grow to $1.9 billion in 2026, accounting for more than 12% of the global total.

One example of a company adjusting to