They are not children. The Japanese company is ending the production of baby diapers, the priority will be seniors

In Japan, the sale of adult diapers has outpaced the sale of baby diapers for about ten years. The first Japanese manufacturer, the company Unicharm, stated in 2011 that its sales of adult diapers surpassed sales of children’s diapers.

Oji Holdings stated that its subsidiary Oji Nepia has currently produced 400 million baby diapers. Production has declined since 2001, when the company produced 700 million diapers. Oji will continue to manufacture baby diapers in Malaysia and Indonesia, where demand is growing.

The adult diaper market in Japan is growing and is estimated to be worth over US$2 billion (K46.7 billion). Japan now has one of the oldest populations in the world, with 30 percent of the population over 65 years old. Last year, according to people over the age of 80, it dropped ten percent for the first time.

Record low birth rate

758,631 children were born in Japan last year, which was 5.1 percent less than in the previous year. But it was the least recorded poet of new born children since the 19th century. In the 70s of the last century, about two million children were born in the country.

Japan ranks among the largest economies in the world. The decrease in population is the result of a decrease in the birth rate, so it represents a big problem for the country. Efforts by the Japanese government to obtain it met with little success.

Except for spending on programs related to children and subsidies instead of young children, do not increase the birth rate. According to the experts, the problems are complicated, ranging from the number of mothers and the number of men entering the workforce, to the increased cost of raising children.

But Japan is not alone. The birth rate in Asia is also falling in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Jin Korea, which even has the lowest birth rate in the world.

So last year, it recorded a second year in a row of population decline and, like Japan, it introduced incentives to reduce the birth rate. Demographic problems are caused by shrinking populations and the consequences of the decades-long one-child policy, which ended in 2015.