CHINO, Japan, May 20, 2024—What aging is doing to Japan is sketched graphically in two sets of high and low numbers: The farm ministry’s recent statistics showed Japan’s 2023 apple production fell 18 percent from 2022 to a record low of 603,800 tons. The number of vacant private houses totaled 8.46 million in the most recent government survey taken in 2018, a record high and up 3.2 percent from the previous survey year of 2013 with the number representing 13.6 percent of total private houses.
The common denominator of the two sets of date is rapid – and accelerating – population aging progressing faster than anybody expected that may make soft-landing of its impact difficult.
True to the growing public fear about the aging’s negative effects, apple growers reported to the ministry about labor shortages arising from difficulty finding next-generation growers and inevitable acreage reductions for inability to increase per capita production, as well as soaring fertilizer and pesticide costs and climate change.
Apple shipment in 2023 also fell 18 percent to 548,400 tons, also the smallest quantity on record. Wholesale and retail prices soared, lifting beyond what Japanese consumers can afford for the most popular fruit in the country.
Tangerine orange production was unchanged at 681,600 tons while shipment was up 1 percent at 617,000 tons on year, although both figures were down 10 percent from 2021. Prices were up 50 percent. Tangerines are known to be easier and less costly to grow than apples.
Unwanted, vacant houses
By 2024, real estate economists estimate the number of vacant houses topped well over 9 million units, probably representing 14 percent of total available private housing. Vacant houses have been steadily rising since 1963 in Japan.
TV Niigata, a local station based in the Japan Sea coast city of Niigata, reported May 20 that the city’s vacant houses accounted for 15.3 percent of total houses in 2023 and are still growing. The number was double of 1998.
Many vacant houses are being given free but aging owners are having a hard time selling them because prospective buyers need to shoulder repair costs, it said.
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