Japan is struggling so hard with an aging population: pamper manufacturer changes target group from babies to the elderly

A Japanese diaper manufacturer has announced that it will no longer make pampers for babies, but will from now on only concentrate on the adult market. This is yet another example of how hard the Asian country is struggling with an aging population.

Japan has the oldest population in the world: last year it turned out that one in ten inhabitants was over 80 and the birth rate was also at the lowest level since the nineteenth century.

An example of the worsening problem of an aging population: sales of adult diapers have exceeded those of infants for more than a decade. The fact that the difference between the two groups is only increasing has now prompted diaper manufacturer Oji Holdings to completely stop the production of pampers for babies in Japan and to focus exclusively on pampers for adults from now on.

In 2001, at the company’s peak, subsidiary Oji Nepia manufactured 700 million baby diapers, but this has now dropped to 400 million. While the market for adult diapers is now estimated to be worth more than 2 billion euros.