The median age of Japan’s population in 2025 was around 50 years, making it the oldest country in the world, behind only microstates like Monaco and Vatican City. The country’s fertility rate is around 1.4, which is higher than its peers in the Pacific but still too low to prevent Japan’s population from shrinking. In fact, the island nation’s population has dropped by 5% since 2010. Outside of Japan, Taiwan also has a rapidly aging population and a low fertility rate. The country’s total fertility rate sits at 1.2, which, though low, has increased in recent years. However, similarly to Japan, Taiwan is ranked the 29th oldest country in the world. 

A crisis of an aging population is hard to solve. While issues like inflation, national debt, or struggling industry cannot be solved overnight, they are often studied, and solutions are common and well understood. But solving a problem affecting individuals’ personal lives, private commitments, and families is a more daunting task. There is no way to ensure that birth rates increase without draconian policies, bordering on authoritarianism in Mussolini’s Italy. As such, nations outside the eastern Pacific must be keen to the indicators of an aging population, else they face the same ramifications as countries like Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

Unsurprisingly, an aging population can slow a country’s economic growth. With more citizens retiring from the workforce and fewer entering it, many prosperous East Asian nations are struggling to maintain a thriving economy. Over the next decade, it is estimated that roughly 300 million people will leave the Chinese workforce, which could strain China’s pension system and healthcare infrastructure. Though the Chinese government has worked hard to expand the coverage of its Old-age Insurance System, in 2022, it was estimated that close to 350 million people were left uninsured. The 2020 global pandemic compounded China’s woes by stalling its already vulnerable economy.

Japan’s economy is also facing the challenges brought on by an aging population. Industries are still filled with senior employees. According to one study, in 2022, half of all Japanese firms relied on workers aged 70 and above. An aging population does not merely affect Japan’s workforce; it also affects the country’s finances. One third of Japan’s budget in 2025 was devoted to social security. Pensions make up around 40% of social security expenditure, and in 2025, Japan spent around $347 billion on its citizens’ pension payments.

There will likely be a ripple effect felt globally from the slowing economies in East Asia. Like China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, many other developed countries are expected to encounter the dilemma of an aging population. Slowing economies and decreasing youth-led innovation spell trouble for global trade and commerce. Western and Eastern nations alike will likely have to create increasingly automated industries to maintain current output levels and compensate for a shrinking labor force. Governments will have to turn their attention to expanding healthcare and senior living industries, and second-sector jobs will become sparse. If Eastern demographic trends were to hit Western nations, it would severely disrupt the global economy.

Thankfully, an outcome like that is unlikely. Solutions to an aging population are already being implemented and developed in East Asia. In 2018, Japan introduced the Guideline of Measures for Aging Society to encourage older citizens to remain in the workforce. In 2023, to combat the labor shortage on the country’s horizon, Prime Minister Kishida pledged $7.6 billion to the training of workers in high-skilled jobs.

China remade its social security network for the first time since the 1980s and implemented a “three pillars” system for pension funds. Though millions are still not covered by Beijing’s Old-Age Insurance System, Xi’s administration has promised universal coverage (i.e., all Chinese citizens being entitled to social security) for the Chinese population. South Korea has implemented numerous solutions to its low fertility rate, ranging from matchmaking events to public and private subsidies for new parents in the form of cash or healthcare.

Western nations should look to East Asia for guidance in addressing potential demographic shifts. Conversely, one way to prevent a population from greying is to keep immigration steady, as the United States does. China, like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, however, has one of the lowest immigrant populations in the world. The United States’ reputation as the “land of opportunity” has encouraged migration to the country for half a century. East Asian countries could emulate the States’ success by opening their borders and inviting immigrants seeking employment and safety. East Asia could make itself more appealing by emphasizing a robust retirement support network and a labor market willing to pay well for young workers. 

Whichever methods the powers in East Asia use to combat their aging populations, one thing is for certain. Developed countries across the globe must address their shifting demographics as soon as possible to ensure stability for their younger generations, however small they may be.