A Japanese diaper manufacturer stops making diapers for children – and bets on the adult market.
Friday 29 March at 10:17 a.m
The company Oji Holdings says in a statement that it is doing this because of sharply falling production. In 2001, the company produced 700 million baby nappies. Last year they produced 400 million.
At the same time, sales of nappies to adults and the elderly are increasing. In 2011, Japan’s largest diaper manufacturer, Unicharm, said the adult diaper market had become larger than the children’s market, according to BBC.
One of the world’s lowest birth rates
This is related to the population trend in. In 2023, 10 per cent of the population was over 80, and 29.1 per cent over 65.
At the same time, last year was the year with the fewest births in the country since the nineteenth century. Japan is one of the countries in the world with the lowest birth rate, at 1.2 children per fertile woman.
Oji Holdings will continue to produce baby diapers in Malaysia and Indonesia, where it expects growth in demand.
In January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came out and said that birth rates are so low that the country is at the limit of whether they can continue to function as a society.
– Focusing on guidelines regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed, he said.
Experts have stated that Japan’s population could be halved by 2100.
– Danger signal
The birth figures in this country have also received a lot of attention after Statistics Norway published figures that showed record low fertility in Norway.
Now only 1.4 children are born per woman, compared to 1.98 in 2009.
According to the UN, the figure must be approximately 2.1 in order to maintain the population over a longer period of time.
– This is a danger signal for Norway. We will lack people in the future if this trend does not reverse, said Conservative leader Erna Solberg to VG.
A municipality has taken creative steps to get people to have more children. In Lebesby in Eastern Finnmark, you get NOK 100,000 if you have a child while living in the municipality – and continue to live there.
Also read: Thinks the birth may have made Johaug better: – Indisputable effect
