Sarah Lubman sul National Geographic parla del Giappone e delle sfide che una società sempre più anziana dovrà affrontare:

If Japan is any guide, aging will change the fabric of society in ways both obvious and subtle. It will run up a huge tab that governments will struggle to pay. Meeting the challenge won’t be easy, but the future isn’t necessarily all downhill. Japan’s experience, with its characteristic attention to detail and design, suggests extreme aging—a world in which an increasing share of the population is old—may inspire an era of innovation.

L’argomento è stato recentemente affrontato anche dall’Economist, che parla di come alcune città (Toyama è portata ad esempio) si stiano adattando all’invecchiamento della popolazione:

 A former elementary school, its classrooms surplus to requirement, has been turned into a snazzy old folks’ centre with hot-spring exercise pools.

The city has adopted what urban planners call a “compact city” policy. Recognising that sprawl is expensive to build, maintain and service, planners try to make cities smaller, denser and less car-reliant.

Planners there have pursued what they call a “dumpling and skewer” structure, in which denser hubs (the dumplings) are linked by public transport (the skewers).

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, corrispondente da Tokyo per la BBC, crea a sua volta un ritratto personale del Giappone, a conclusione dei suoi 10 anni di permanenza:

Will Japan gradually fade into irrelevance, or re-invent itself? My head tells me that to prosper anew Japan must embrace change. But my heart aches at the thought of it losing the things that make it so special.