Japan's Aged Care Sector

The Australia-Japan Aged Care & Well-being Mission

Ageing Japan

With a rapidly decreasing population in Japan, Japan’s corporate world is keen to diversify into “growth” sectors both on and offshore. Domestically, the key “growth” demographic is Japan’s rapidly ageing population.  According to the 2015 Annual Report on the Ageing Society (Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare), the percentage of people over 65 years old has now reached 26% of the Japanese population, and one in every 4 people is over 75 years. Japan’s life expectancy (M/F combined) is also the highest in the world at 86 years for women and 80 years for men.

Austrade Japan has been pro-actively developing an extensive network of key contacts in the aged care/nursing sector to identify niche gaps.  It has become clear that there is a growing awareness within both business circles and academia that while Japan has expertise in development of products for the aged care sector, many Japanese experts in the sector consider Japan to be behind Australia in terms of QoL for the elderly, palliative care training and implementation, professional development opportunities for aged care workers, undergraduate and post graduate level aged care courses and the practical application of research around ageing to contribute to development of better environments for the elderly and in particular dementia patients.

The Australia-Japan Aged Care & Well-being Mission in November 2016 will be the first Australian government aged care initiative since the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA) entered into force on January 15th, 2015 and is already fully subscribed.  The aim of the mission will be to provide Australian organisations with the opportunity to: promote their capabilities; gain a better understanding of market trends, and facilitate bilateral engagements to support future collaborations and commercial opportunities.  

Interested in examining potential opportunities through tailored programs? Please contact:

Australia: Mr Dugald Anthony, Senior Trade Adviser, International Health, Austrade Brisbane

E Dugald.Anthony@austrade.gov.au

Japan: Ms Cindy Lineburg, Senior Business Development Manager (Aged Care), Austrade Osaka

E Cindy.Lineburg@austrade.gov.au

[Source: Cindy Lineburg, Senior Business Development Manager (Aged Care), Austrade Osaka]