Hello, there!! This is from Nakahara. It seemed the very heavy rain yesterday. It didn’t affect me that much since I was inside all the time. I really hate rain, so I hope it will be sunny all the time whenever I go out.
Anyway, today’s theme is ‘Encouragement of sharehouse and room-sharing for the elderly, toward super-aging society!!‘. I’ve often heard people say, ‘Japan is an aging society with child birthrate falling!’ since I was a junior high student. I think there are probably few Japanese who do not know about this.
So, I think a sharehouse for the elderly is a very good idea. People tend to think a sharehouse is for younger people, but I disagree with that.
The current situation of sharehouses
People think a sharehouse is for younger people. In fact, the average age of residents of sharehouses are in their 20s (around 28~29 years old). Also, in percentage terms, it looks like the image below.
It goes 20~29 years old is 63.7%, 30~39 years old is 22.5%, 40~49 years old is 6.4%, and such. Everyone can imagine that the 20s are many, but the second-largest generation is 30~39 years old. Also, the number of residents in their 30s has been increasing. Other than that, the number of people in their 40s is larger than people younger than 20 years old, meaning surprisingly people in their 40s live in sharehouses. The ratio of people in their 60s living in sharehouses is 0.4%, meaning they barely live in sharehosues. Also, as a fact, there are not many sharehouses for the elderly nationwide.
Not long ago, there were TV shows and movies in which sharehouses are used as the contents, depicting romantic stories among the younger generation. So, now people have a strong image that sharehouses are for younger people. Also, boarding houses and sharehouses have similar characters, and I think that’s why the elderly hesitate to live in sharehouses.
Increase in single-person households
Most of the residents of the sharehouse are one-person households. It is said that the number of single-person households is expected to keep increasing until 2030.
Also, the number of lifetime unmarried people has been increasing as the single-person households in 40s~50s increases. However, what I look at carefully is the single-person households over 65 years old. It’s obvious from the graph above, the single-person households of the elderly have been increasing year by year. It’s expected that the number of elderly living alone will reach 1.76 million people for men and 3.60 million people for women.
Even though the growth of the percentage of elderly women living alone slows down, but the percentage of elderly men living alone is expected to increase at a similar pace as now. So, the percentage of men among single-person households will increase 32.9% in 2020 from 24.5% as of 2020. It’s been said that the reason why the number of elderly men living alone increases is that the unmarried rate and divorce rate have been rising, and an increase in the number of people who don’t live with their children even after the death of a spouse.
The number of single-person households will increase from now. Also, at the same time, I think the single-person households of healthy elderly who don’t need to receive nursing care services will rise because the average life and health expectancy is growing through the development of medical technology and fitness boom. According to the report about measures against aging society by the Cabinet Office of Japan, the elderly single-person households are less likely to have a conversation every day than households with two or more people. And also, the report shows that they don’t feel joy and happiness in their daily life.
In recent years, it has become easier to communicate with others through the Internet because of technological development. However, I think some things are difficult to get through the Internet, such as the sense of security and comfortability that comes from direct face-to-face communication. So, I believe sharehouses can be one of the ways to enrich the real world.
If ‘Concept-based sharehouses’ that integrate interests and ideas not only from younger generation but also from people in their 40s~50s and the elderly are provided more, I think there is a good chance that sharehouse will expand to single people in their 40s~50s and elderly living alone. As of today, it’s not a big market, but I personally think the market of sharehouses for the elderly will expand more.
That’s all for today. This article is ‘Encouragement of sharehouse and room-sharing for the elderly, toward super-aging society!!’ by Nakahara.
