Nearly 40% of Japan¡¯s older adults ¡ª those age 65 and over ¡ª want to continue engaging in paid work, with the most common motivation being the need for money, a white paper on the nation¡¯s aging population revealed on Friday.

The percentage is much higher compared to numbers from the countries where the same survey was conducted last year among the same age group ¡ª the United States, Germany and Sweden. In the U.S., only around 24% of respondents gave the same answer, and in the other two countries, around 19%.

Among those in Japan who want to continue working, nearly half ¡ª the largest percentage ¡ª cited the need to earn an income, followed by 25% who said working helps them maintain their health and slow down aging.

Meanwhile, in the other three countries, the rate of respondents who wanted to work because they considered work as interesting and energizing, or because they wanted to make use of their skills and knowledge, was just as high or even higher than that for those seeking income.

In 2025, a total of 13.7% of the working population in Japan consisted of people at the age of 65 and above, the report said. The employment rate of this demographic has been increasing year on year for 22 years in a row ¡ª last year, the rate was 54.5% for those between 65 and 69 years old, 36.2% for those between 70 and 74, and 12.6% for those age 75 and above.

As of the beginning of October last year, 29.4% of Japan¡¯s total population were of the age of 65 and above, up by 0.8 percentage point from a year earlier. The rate has constantly grown over the past several decades and is expected to reach nearly 40% in 2070, the white paper said.

The percentage of older adults in Japan who maintain relationships with their neighbors, at 81.6%, has also decreased significantly since the same survey was conducted in the four countries in 2020, when it was 97.9%.

Although the decline was seen in all four countries, the U.S., Germany and Sweden recorded rates above 90% in their latest surveys.

Only around 13% of respondents in Japan said they could rely on friends, and a similar rate on neighbors, for small daily tasks that they cannot perform on their own. These rates are significantly lower than those of the other countries, which suggests that older adults in Japan might be having a particularly hard time relying on people other than their family members.