 Kazuo
Mashita and his wife travel overseas from Tokyo at least three times
a year. Before he retires in five years, Mashita, the 70-year-old
president of a Japanese accounting company, plans to take a round-the-world
cruise.
"We no longer fit the traditional image of
Japan's elderly who live modestly," said Mashita, whose latest
jaunt was a one- month "senior college" tour of Canada
to hone his English- language skills. "Seniors of my generation
are very healthy and energetic, and don't mind spending money
on what interests us." Language-tour groups for older people
are the brainchild of JTB, the biggest travel agent in Japan,
which says the number of participants has increased sixfold since
1999. Last year JTB added Australia to its offerings for the elderly.
It is not just tourism agencies going after the
elders' yen. NTT DoCoMo with its cellphones, Wacoal with its underwear
and NEC with its computers are among the Japanese companies focusing
on older consumers to protect their sales in Japan, the world's
second- largest economy. Japan's 23 million retired people spend
25 trillion yen, $214 billion, a year, government figures show.
By 2030, the government forecasts that people aged
over 65 will number about 35 million, or a third of the projected
population, the highest percentage in the industrialized world.
Japanese already live longer than anyone else; a record low birthrate
of 1.32 children per woman last year led to government warnings
that births may fall to less than one child per woman by 2007.
"Companies have no choice but to adjust their
strategies to suit the needs of seniors," said Yoko Araki,
a senior planner at Dentsu, the biggest advertising agency in
Japan. "It's not too much to say that their survival depends
on it."
The same challenges confront businesses in the
United States and Western Europe. Those over 65 will comprise
20 percent of the U.S. population by 2030, up from about 13 percent
in 2001, according to the World Bank. In Britain, the forecast
is 22 percent, up from 16 percent.
Japan already has a ready-made market among its
over-50's, who hold 75 percent of the country's personal savings
of 1,400 trillion yen. "The range and kinds of companies
trying to target the senior market have expanded" in recent
years, said Hiroyuki Murata, president of
Murata Associates, a consulting and research company based
in Tokyo.
|
