■ Is Japan Attractive?
Is the market in Japan attractive for your business? This question may be converted to this; Are your products or services attractive for Japanese consumers?
What are the attractive points of Japan in terms of a market? First comes to its size. Market size is represented by several factors such as population, total consumer expenditure, national income, physical width of land and the like.
It is said that adequate wealth distribution is also a key for your business besides those factors mentioned above. Even though total amount of GDP is awesome, it would be useless if the wealth is concentrated only to the limited people.
Important condition is the existence of an affluent middle class. Then consumption of ordinal consumer goods or services flourish and you consequently can find a lot of business opportunities as long as your goods or services are attractive for Japanese consumers. Obviously Japan has met this condition so far.
■ Demography is the Key
One more key factor is demographical situation of the nation. The young tend to save money while the aged tend to spend a lot. Preference of goods and services they want also vary. Most of the developed countries are aging rapidly, and Japan runs first in aging.
As shown in the figures below, population of age 65 or above, so called post-productive population, is growing rapidly in Japan. Almost 30% of total population belongs to this age group in recent Japan.
World Population of Age 65 or Above
Source: World Development Indicator, World Bank
Under this circumstance you can take advantage of a mark in Japan not only as a place for selling your merchandise, but also as a showcase for future market in the world.
■ Is World Aging?
The percentage of world population by age group is described in the next figure below. Various interpretations come up with this graph. The most important interpretation is that the world has already started to be aging.
World Population by Age Group
Source: World Development Indicator, World Bank
Though the percentage of the population in production age which ranges 15 to 64 is still increasing gradually, the percentage of the population in pre-productive age which is 14 or less is decreasing.
This means the percentage of the production age will be decreasing in the long run. That’s why we could say that the world has already started to be aging. Therefore, market in Japan would be a good showcase for the aging world.
Details of population and demography in Japan as well as in the world are described in “Topics” pages of this Home Page soon.