[Inside Chodong] Imminent Super-Aged Society... Will We Repeat the Mistakes of Low Birthrate Policies?

Japan's New Unified Prison Sentence System
Elderly Crime Surges Amid Super-Aged Society

Starting next year, all criminal offenders convicted under Japan's revised Penal Code, amended in June 2022, will serve a unified form of imprisonment called 'Kokin-kei (拘禁刑)'. This type of sentence involves work and recidivism prevention education tailored to the characteristics of the inmates. It unifies the previous 'Ch?eki-kei (懲役刑)', which involved hard labor, and 'Kinko-kei (禁錮刑)', which was purely confinement. This is the first change in the types of sentences in Japan since the Penal Code was established in 1907.

The background to this change is Japan's aging population. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan became the world's first 'super-aged society' in 2006, with over 20% of its population aged 65 or older. By the end of 2022, the proportion of people aged 65 and above surpassed 30%. It is expected that about 20% of the population will be 75 or older next year.

National preparedness for the rapidly accelerating aging population was insufficient, leading to a social phenomenon of increasing elderly crime. In 2022, the number of employed people aged 65 and over in Japan reached 9.12 million, with the proportion of elderly workers at a record high of 13.6%. Elderly people without steady income and unable to find jobs increasingly committed livelihood-related crimes. While only 2-3% of inmates were aged 65 or older in the late 1980s, this figure rose to 23% in 2022. As more elderly inmates serving prison sentences became ill, increasing management costs, the government decided to abolish the prison sentence altogether.

The government's response was delayed. Japan only legislated a retirement age of 60 in 1994, when the population aged 65 and over exceeded 14%, marking entry into an 'aged society'. It was not until 2013, seven years after entering a 'super-aged society', that employment up to age 65 was legislated. Even then, this was in the form of 'continued employment' as contract workers with reduced wages after retirement at 60.

Recently introduced in Korea, the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival's Best New Director award-winning film, Plan 75 by director Chie Hayakawa, depicts a government policy recommending euthanasia for people aged 75 and older, causing a global stir. Population expert Masashi Kawai warned in his 2017 book Future Timeline that by the 2040s, there will be fierce competition for admission to nursing facilities due to shortages, and an overflow of elderly homeless people.

This is not someone else's problem. Since the OECD began publishing poverty rates for populations aged 66 and over in 2009, Korea has consistently ranked first. In 2020, while the OECD average was 14.2%, Korea's rate was 40.4%. The sharp increase in livelihood-related crimes among the elderly in Korea is clearly reflected in police crime statistics. The number of theft crimes committed by those aged 65 and over rose by 62%, from 10,448 cases in 2017 to 16,892 cases in 2021.

Rising housing costs are a major cause of elderly poverty. According to the 'Measures to Improve Housing Benefits for Elderly Households' announced by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements on the 27th of last month, there are currently only 30,000 public housing units exclusively for the elderly, accounting for just 0.6% of the total 5.016 million elderly households. The government's housing policies are focused on youth and newlyweds, making it difficult to avoid criticism that the elderly are being marginalized.

Korea is expected to enter a super-aged society as early as the end of this year or by early next year at the latest. It must not repeat Japan's trial and error. However, with elections approaching, the political sphere is preoccupied with lavish but empty promises, spreading the popular phrase 'Naemin Nampo (내민 남포)'?meaning 'If I do it, it's livelihood policy; if others do it, it's populism.' Although there is a Presidential Committee on Low Fertility and Aging Society, trust is lacking. Hopefully, aging population policies will not follow the same path as low fertility policies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.