4.1a How Longer Life Expectancy Contribute to Cultural Change
Life expectancy and birth and death rates (the number of people born or dying per 1,000 people) make up the age structure of a country. Changes to the age structure can drive cultural change. However, the age structure can also result from social change (such as healthcare innovations). A population pyramid shows a country’s distribution of men and women by age. Figure 4.1 is a population pyramid for Japan. When a population is growing, the graphic looks like a pyramid with many more younger than older people, such as in Nigeria (see Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.1
The Population Pyramid for Japan, 2021
From CIA. (2021). Japan–Details. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2021/countries/japan/images/cde0fa58-4132-56ce-9d3f-fc6a6ab1d85f. In the public domain.
Figure 4.2
The Population Pyramid for Nigeria, 2021
From CIA. (2024, December 18). Explore all countries–Nigeria. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/nigeria/. In the public domain.
Japan’s age structure no longer looks like a pyramid due to improvements in healthcare. These improvements have led longer lives and more control over the number and timing of having children. These factors (among others) have led to people living longer and having fewer children. Today, Japan has an aging population. A third of its population is 65 or older, and 10% is 80 or older (Yeung & Ogura, 2023). Japan has the world’s highest proportion of people aged 65 and older. Its aging population has led to labor shortages and pressure on tax-supported programs like social security and healthcare because there are fewer young people to support older people.
Aging and Social Change
The aging population has also contributed to social change in Japan. Japan’s work culture long supported lifetime employment. Therefore, people could count on staying in the same job until retirement, which is mandatory at age 65 (Kanaoka, 2024). The compulsory retirement age opened jobs for younger workers. However, there are fewer young people today who can take these jobs. Countries like Japan are adapting to sustain a large older and small younger population. For example, Japan raised the retirement age from 60 to 65 in 2025 and has prohibited mandatory retirement. Japan’s work culture is beginning to change from seniority-based promotion (the person with the longest tenure gets the promotion) to a model used in the United States, where promotion and employment are based on an employee’s skills and experience for the job role (Kanaoka, 2024).
As a result of the larger proportion of older people in Japan, norms are changing. Norms are the socially approved ideas and behaviors that guide people to act or think in predictable ways. They are a feature of groups and can change across time and location. However, just because an action or idea is widely held does not make it a norm. Norms create a social expectation that a person should act in a particular way or have a given attitude (Horne & Mollborn, 2020). Further, some norms become laws, and the law shapes norms. However, while many laws are norms, not all norms are laws. Governments use laws to outline what actions or ideas are allowed, which they enforce (Horne & Mollborn, 2020). Rules are actions and ideas that organizations (such as a university) implement on their members (students, staff, and faculty) (Horne & Mollborn, 2020). In Japan, the government creates laws that limit the rules companies have in place about mandatory retirement. Further, these limits contribute to changing Japan’s workplace norms.