There are very few nursing homes for the unexpectedly and rapidly growing numbers of old people. With the increase in two-child families, the wife must often take care of her own parents as well. The Japanese are extremely concerned with this problem of a rapidly aging population, as well they might be. At present 10 percent of the population is over age 65, but that number will swell to 25 percent by the year 2025. Although the postwar trend has been toward increasing urbanization and nuclear families, the shortage of housing and day care combined with the need for home care for the elderly has resulted in many a three-generation family.
Japanese women have the longest life expectancy of any people in the world.
They can now expect to live to the age of 81. That's quite a change from the prewar days, when most women died by age 50. Her youngest child entered school when she was about 42, and she herself died some eight years later.