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Aging serious：Japanese quit to take care of the elderly

日本老齡化嚴重:工薪階級辭職照顧老人

More than 100,000 people a year in Japan leave their jobs to care for sick elderly relatives, according to the government, and most of them remain unemployed after their death.

根據日本政府的數據，日本每年有超過10萬名工薪族辭掉工作以專心照顧病弱的年老親人。而當老人故去后，這些人中的絕大部分保持著失業狀態。

The tally is set to balloon as the nearly 7 million-strong baby-boomer generation reaches the age of 75 in the coming decade, potentially dragging their children from the workforce in their prime earning years. That’s something Japan can ill afford, as the working-age population shrinks due to the low birthrate and the government’s rejection of immigration.

鑒于日本嬰兒潮時期出生的近700萬人將在未來十年內達到75歲，可能會令正處在賺錢黃金時期的子女退出勞動力大軍，這個數字預計還將大幅增長。當因為低出生率和政府拒絕開放移民的原因，使得處于工作年齡的人口數量大幅減少時，日本這個國家可能就難以承受了。

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed in September to stem the flow, which he referred to as an "imminent crisis." In a speech, he set out targets for growing the economy to 600 trillion yen from the current 500 trillion yen, preventing the population from falling below 100 million from the current 127 million, and enabling as many people as possible to work, whatever their family responsibilities.

日本首相安倍晉三在今年九月表態，要及時遏止這一被他稱為“迫在眉睫的危機”的不利形勢。在發言中，他表示要確立目標，要將經濟總量從現在的500萬億日元提升到600萬億日元，同時還要防止人口從現在的1億2700萬減少到低于1個億的這一情況的發生。最后，他還要求無論什么樣的家庭原因。都要讓盡可能多的人去工作。

As a first step, the government last month announced plans to provide an extra 120,000 people with beds in homes for the elderly or other forms of support by the early 2020s. Regulations will be eased to make it easier to open nursing homes in major cities and entitlements to leave and allowances will be revised

作為第一步，日本政府上個月宣布，計劃在2020年之前，向有年老者的居民家中額外提供12萬張床。政府還將放寬規定，使在主要城市開設養老院更加容易，并將休假和津貼進行修訂。

The measures may boost Japan’s workforce by a modest 0.2 per cent a year. Still, some researchers say the government’s proposals don’t address the complexity of the issue.

這些措施將會以每年百分之零點二的速度提升日本的勞動力。但是，一些專家表示，政府的這些提議并不會解決問題的復雜性。

Japan has 16.4m people who are 75 or older. By 2025, the number is projected to swell to 21.8m.

目前日本有1640萬75歲及以上的老年人口，到2025年，這一人口數量預計將增至2180萬。