Akita

Akita is the world’s demographic trendsetter. It is the prefecture with the highest average age inJapan, a country which is on track to have 300,000 centenarians by 2040. It is on a path that Korea, then China and later Italy the US and UK will follow.

Inside the hyper-aged society

No country has aged quite like Japan, though many soon will. In 1900 the life expectancy in Japan was 45, the average age 27 years old. Today Japanese women can expect to reach 87, men 80 and the country has 65,000 people that are 100 or older. Japan is the leader of the global aging shock, and Akita is its epicentre: the first prefecture where the average person is over 50. 

To get off the Komachi Shinkansen bullet train at Akita station is step into a world where everyone is old. The couples eating in restaurants and the waitresses serving them, the construction workers, the chambermaids and the chefs—the vast majority of people you encounter here are elderly. Talking to them about their lives suggests the challenges of aging are surprising and unexpected.