Japan’s ageing population rich opportunity for West

Japan’s elderly population is getting even older, reveals a new government report that shows the number of people living over the age of 100 has doubled in the last five years. Centenarians in Japan now number more than 20,000, the government said this week. The Cabinet white paper also reported that the number of men aged over 65 has surpassed 10 million for the first time. With nearly one in five people now over 65, a proportion set to rise to one in four by 2050, functional foods and nutraceuticals to boost quality of life and help prevent age-related disease are set to boom. “Diet has definitely played a role in this longevity,” noted nutraceuticals consultant Paul Yamaguchi. “But like any other country, the western culture has penetrated this market and we are also eating McDonald’s and western-type foods.” “This means that we have many of the same [diet-related] problems and are seeing growing obesity and related disease.”   A recent report by Paul Yamaguchi and Associates predicts that the Japanese nutraceutical market, currently worth around €18 billion, will more than double by 2012. Japanese companies such as Morinaga and Kikkoman Foods still dominate the functional foods category, making the