What we can learn from Japan’s ageing society

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Here’s what we can learn from Japan’s ageing society – including my 99-year-old grandpa

Millie Muroi Economics Writer September 26, 2025 — 5.00am

When my grandpa was little, he didn’t think he would live past 80. His own grandfather was the oldest in his village at that age when he died.

But this month, my grandpa, Tatsuyuki Muroi, quietly turned 99. I say “quietly” because although it’s a milestone, when I visited him in his aged care home in southern Japan this week to ask him about it, he chuckled and admitted he had lost count.

Japan is the epitome of an ageing population. More than one in 10 people living in the country have celebrated an 80th birthday. And this month, it recorded just shy of 100,000 people aged 100 or older.

It’s an