Respect for the Aged Day: Remain Energetic through Interaction with Young Generation

Editorial

15:15 JST, September 16, 2025

Many people surely wish to be of service to someone else, no matter how old they become. It is hoped that a society will be built in which people help each other across generations with an emphasis on person-to-person interaction.

Today, Sept. 15, is Respect for the Aged Day. According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and other entities, the number of elderly people aged 65 or older has climbed to 36.19 million, accounting for a record high 29.4% of the total population. The number of people aged 100 or over has risen to 99,763 and reached a record high for 55 consecutive years.

When people can feel that they are of any help to someone else, they naturally feel uplifted. The knowledge and experience accumulated over a long life are valuable assets. Sharing these across generations brings vitality to society.

Live & Live, a nonprofit organization based in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, launched its “intergenerational home share” project in 2012. This system offers vacant rooms in elderly people’s homes as low rent lodgings to students from regional areas.

This system helps the young people have a lower financial burden. It also can alleviate elderly people’s anxiety about sudden health changes, among other concerns, as young people are living with them.

Those aged 65 or older in single-person households are projected to increase from 8.15 million in 2025 to 10.83 million in 2050. More than a few people have empty rooms in their homes due to losing a spouse or their children becoming independent.

Fusako Ishibashi, the NPO’s representative director, said, “Mutual support in daily life has given them something to live for, making them feel happy.”

However, she also said the reality is that few elderly people apply to the system, partly due to anxiety about accepting strangers. Support measures, such as government involvement in recruitment and explanation activities, will be needed to foster a sense of security.

Integrated facilities combining nursing homes for the aged and nursery schools for preschool children, among others, are also highly evaluated as places for intergenerational exchange.

At facilities run by the social welfare corporation Kotoen, based in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, elderly people and preschoolers interact daily through such activities as morning exercises and playtime. Children also perform incense offerings when an elderly resident dies, as part of an ongoing initiative by the corporation.

Some elderly people at the facilities say they are encouraged by the children and feel as if they have “gotten younger.” The children, too, naturally develop compassion and good manners, according to the corporation.

In the so-called 100-year-lifespan era, extending healthy life expectancy is crucial. As more people live longer in good health, the period in which they require medical and nursing care shortens, thereby helping curb social security costs.

The “societies of regional coexistence” the government aims to create are ones in which everyone can live with a sense of fulfilment. The hope is that the central and local governments will pool their wisdom and strengthen collaborative public-private initiatives toward this coexistence.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 15, 2025)