Sophie BUHNIK, Institut français de recherche sur le Japon (UMIFRE 19), Japan
Although it is not anymore the country in East Asia which ages at the fastest pace, Japan remains in 2022 the "oldest" country in the world, as measured by several demographical indicators (number and percentage of elderly, average life expectancy). Such trends are intertwined with a continuous decline of Japan's total population since 2008, and were only deepened by the coronavirus crisis.
Faced with such an unprecedented situation, social scientists and urban planners in Japan have introduced concepts and measures which elaborate on the notion of gerontogrowth, in order to more finely analyze the spatial distribution of aging and its socio-economic effects on urban life in particular. Our talk revolves around the presentation of concepts that have gained momentum in Japanese urban research, and we will especially pay attention to the notion of "double ageing", as it is meant to adress the ageing of inhabitants in "obsolescent" neighbourhoods where the maintenance of infrastructures and buildings is affected by a lack of demographic vitality.
After a brief presentation of Japan's spatial distribution of aging at several scales, we will explain how "double ageing" can be assessed and mapped using the newly published results of the 2020 national population census, in combination with surveys on housing and construction. We will show how the heuristical value of analyses in terms of double ageing for gerontological geography and urban planning is paradoxically hindered by the socio-economic and political implications of very strong rates of elderly inhabitants : to put it simply, local governments with percentages of residents over 65 exceeding 40% and gradually losing population experience technical or financial difficulties to release or simply produce statistical series of homogeneous quality, especially below the municipal level.
Mots clés : Ageing|double ageing|Japan|cities|degrowth
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