Minutes of the Joint Workshop on “How to encounter demographic change?-Comparison
between the EU and Japan” on September 22nd 2010 at Kobe University

1. Prof.Claudius Ohder, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Prof.Ohder made his informative presentation on “Demographic Change in EuropeanSocieties”. He has pointed out that there are three key-components affecting the
population change: life expectancy, fertility and migrants.
(1) Life Expectancy
Life Expectancy is getting longer and longer due to considerable progress made in health careand quality of life in Europe. The continuance of the increase in longevity brings up the need tomotivate elderly people to stay active in the labour market longer.
(2) Fertility
The fertility rate in Europe has dramatically declined. As the result, Europeans have afertility rate which is insufficient to maintain the current population.

A low birth rate

is a challenge for the public authorities. Cost of education and child-care systems are to
be reviewed to raise the rate.
(3) Migrants
It is almost crucial for the labour market to accept the migrant workers even though
there will be potential social/cultural issues coming along with the diverse population.
Immigration from outside the EU could help to mitigate the effects of the falling
population, although it is not enough on its own to solve all the problems associatedwith ageing and it is no substitute for economic reforms. This means that the admission
mechanisms for third country nationals must be managed effectively and transparently,and proactive integration and equal opportunities policies must be ensured.
The common trends to the demographic change in Europe are ‘fewer’, ‘older’ and ‘morediverse’.

In order to tackle the matters rising out of the trends, more solidarity among

the generations is needed as well as integrated policies throughout Europe instead ofsectoral policies.

Additionally, public policies must take these demographic changes into

accounts in all policy areas concerned. It is essential to not only reach but to exceed the objective inthe Lisbon Strategy - an employment rate of 70% - to compensate for the expected drop in theworking age population.
2. Ms Eve Paarendson, President of the Contact Group on Japan, the EESC Employer’sGroupMs Paarendson spoke on “Ageing, and shrinking population: challenges andopportunities from businesses’ perspective”, where she showed current developments ofthe EU’s demographic changes and also European business’s reactions to them;reformsof labour markets, pension and health care systems,taking into account the “flexicurity”
principles, reconciling work and private life etc., On the basis of her analysis, she
concluded that “the ageing society brings new business opportunities, such as recreation
services, medical and pharmaceutical field, technological (robotics) and ICT solutions
for older people.
3. Associate Professor Yuki Sekine, Graduate School of Law, Kobe University
Associate Professor Sekine introduced “Employment Policy and Old-age Pension inJapan: Their Interactions”.

Firstly, she introduced Japan’s policy towards ageing andchanges on its pension system and employment practice. Then she concluded, (1) thetraditional Japanese employment practices, both highly uniform and collective, whileproviding high job security, were also blamed as overly rigid, (2) the uncontrollable
ageing of the population and the pool of aged though energetic elderly workers it hascreated, is reorganizing Japanese labour market, demanding for more flexibility and“age-freeness”, (3) This might take some more time to be accepted.
4. Mrs. Erika Koller, Member of the Contact Group on Japan, EESC’s Employee’s GroupMrs.Koller made her speech on “Work-life balance as a pre-condition for demographic
restoration of the society”. She introduced that the work-life balance has become to behigh on the agenda of the EU institutions and the social partners. There is a consensus
at EU level - including social partners - on the importance of policies promoting

work-life balance. In addition, she pointed out that the issues to be tackled are (1)special leave and career breaks, (2) part-time working, and (3) flexi-time. She also
introduced discussions at the EU level, focusing on the European Employment Strategy,
such as (1) working time, new forms of work organization, (2) parental leave, (3)day-care of children, (4) Pregnant workers, and (5) reconciliation of work and family life.
5. Associate Professor Takashi Unayama, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe
UniversityAssociate Professor Unayama discussed “Marriage and Ageing: Why fertility rate is solow in Japan”.

During his presentation, he demonstrated that Japan has experienced

the most rapid ageing in the world, caused mainly by low fertility rate. This low fertility
rate is strongly associated with Japan’s low marriage rate which is caused by the factthat (1) most female workers still leave their jobs after marriage and (2) relative wage offull time worker has been greatly improved, while that of part-time worker (for mostmarried females) has remained low. Therefore, he concluded that Japan needs morechild care support to tackle the ageing problem.
6. Mr. Krzystof Pater, Member of the Contact Group on Japan, EESC’s Various InterestGroupMr. Krzystof made his speech on “Challenges facing the European pension systems”. Heemphasized that, under low fertility rates, increased life expectancy and retirement of
the baby-boom generation, European pension system has to be reformed. However,citizens do not accept or fully understand changes and tendency to postpone reforms toleave problems for the next government(s) and generations. There should be, he insisted,
the following reforms; more years in retirement, decreasing ratio of people of working
age to people of retirement and increase in pension schemes duration. After introducing
European pension system and its reform plan, he concluded that pension reforms in
Europe are still necessary, the current crisis lesson must be taken into account andpension systems must be based on synergies between various policies.
7. Mr. Tatsuya Ishikawa, NLI Research Institute
Final speaker, Mr. Ishikawa, discussed “Role of public and private pension benefits infinancing elderly household consumption-comparison of OECD countries-. Based on his
detailed analysis, he made the following conclusions;a. Actual extent of dependency on the public pension system varies by country. (1)Countries weighted toward private pension: Ireland, Switzerland, UK and US, (2)Countries weighted toward public pension: Austria, Germany, Italy and (3)Countries
with well-balanced weighting of public and private pension : Denmark, Finland, Japan,Sweden
b. Main source of income for Japanese retired households is the public pension benefit.
However, importance of private pension benefit and other types of dissavings has been
growing so as to keep their consumption not lower than that of younger households
c. As the pensionable age is stepped up, the public pension benefit has decreased forhouseholders aged 60-64, and this trend will continue.
c. Voluntary contributions to private pensions by younger households in preparation for
retirement are much lower than contributions made by present beneficiaries in thepast.
8. Discussions and Closing
At the final session, Prof. Hiromasa Kubo, president of the EU Institute inJapan-Kansai, made the following remarks; “Thanks to the European Economic andSocial Committee, the co-organizers of the Workshop, we could understand that boththe European Union and Japan are facing very similar problems, although social
structures and practices are somewhat different. Therefore, there are a lot of fields tolearn each other and to draw lessens from one another.
Currently, the European Commission and Japanese government are drawing next
phase of the “Action Programme” where “people to people exchange” is said to be put
priority. In order to activate the “people to people exchange”, we have to discuss thecommon or similar issues both civil societies are facing. Needless to say, the ageing
society is one of the top agenda. The EESC and the EUIJ-Kansai will appeal to theCommission and Japanese government to raise the ”ageing society” issue to the coming“Action Prgrammes”. Thank you all participants who made great contributions to thisimportant workshop. And, as we promised, we will co-organize next workshop in March2011 in Brussels.”