Elderly people sway to the rhythm of old tunes in a former kindergarten in northern China that has been converted into a leisure center for retirees. At this establishment in Shanxi province, the laughter of children has been replaced by the wisdom of new clients of mature age.
“The problem became particularly obvious with the continuous drop in the number of children enrolled. When my kindergarten became empty, I thought about how to make the best use of it,” the facility’s 56-year-old director Li Siou-Ling told AFP.
She founded the kindergarten in the regional metropolis of Taiwan-Jüan in 2005, and up to 280 children attended it, but she closed it last year. But then the facility underwent a makeover and reopened in December, this time as a leisure center for retirees. It is attended by about a hundred seniors who are engaged in music, dance and other activities. “They come to fulfill some of their dreams from their youth,” says Ms. Li.
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An economy based on seniors
Last year, the number of seniors in China increased significantly, according to official statistics, there were almost 17 million people aged 60 and over. According to the research group Economist Intelligence Unit, this age group already makes up more than 20 percent of the population in China and will increase to almost a third by 2035.
Beijing plans to create a national care system for the elderly by 2025, but the country lacks nursing homes and there are large differences between regions. A large economic meeting is also planned for July, which will deal with seniors.
The government estimates that products and services for seniors – from specialized tourism to advanced medical care – could be worth 30,000 billion yuan (96 trillion crowns) by 2035. However, the government is failing to revive the declining birth rate, which is one of the main factors behind China’s unbalanced demographic situation.
Kindergarten director Li Siou-ling nostalgically remembers the days when her school was teeming with unruly children. “I really liked it here,” she says, noting that she hasn’t thrown out the children’s furniture yet because of these memories.
Young again
The modeling instructor leads a procession of women with perfect hairstyles, traditional dresses and pink paper umbrellas. In another classroom, students sit in a semicircle and play African drums to the accompaniment of socialist songs.
Sixty-three-year-old Che Jing has made new friends at the center and says the local activities have helped her overcome her lack of self-confidence after retirement. “I had the impression that my cultural life was very impoverished, that it didn’t make much sense to continue living. But people here don’t just wait until they get old,” says Che.
According to government data, nearly 15,000 kindergartens were closed in China last year, and the number of enrolled students fell by 5.3 million compared to 2022. In the industrial province of Shanxi, where the population is decreasing, 78,000 more people died than were born there last year.
However, all signs of its former purpose have not yet completely disappeared from the cultural center. There are small bunk beds in some rooms, and tiny benches are lined up along the brightly colored walls. But not only the furniture remained, but also the teachers, including Jen Si, formerly a teacher, now a lecturer.
“Little children believe everything they are told, but older people know what they want. I have to think more about how to communicate with them,” says teacher Jen.
According to local media, several other schools across China have switched from pre-school education to education for the elderly. Sixty-five-year-old center visitor Sun Lin-ch is convinced that colleges for the elderly are necessary. “I feel like I’m young again,” she says.
Demographic crisis in Japan
The Japanese government has started consultations with young people to find out why they don’t want to get married. Japan is still struggling with a demographic crisis, which should result in a sharp decline in the number of inhabitants in the coming decades. According to earlier surveys, young Japanese have few opportunities to meet potential partners and fear the high cost of living, the portal wrote The Guardian.
The Children and Families Agency, which launched in April 2023, held the first meeting of a working group on Friday to support young people in their quest to find a partner through dating, matchmaking and other means. Among the participants were young Japanese who are thinking about marriage in the future and professionals.
The government has realized that ideas about marriage among young people are different from what was once considered the norm, an agency official said. The government sought the opinions of experts and now wants to know the opinions of free people as well.
The agency cited the results of a survey of single people aged 25 to 34, which showed that 43.3 percent of men and 48.1 percent of women said they did not have the opportunity to meet potential partners in 2021. Many of them said they did nothing to increase their chances, such as not attending dating events or asking friends for introductions.
Given that relatively few children are born to unmarried people in Japan, the decline in marriage is cited as a significant reason for the low birth rate and declining and aging population.
In 2023, the number of marriages in the country of 125 million inhabitants will drop below 50,000 for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, the number of births fell 5.1 percent to 758,631, a new record low, and nearly matched the 755,000 the National Social Security Population Research Institute predicted for 2035.
Surveys have shown that many young Japanese are reluctant to marry or start a family because of concerns about the high cost of living in big cities, a lack of good jobs and a work culture that makes it difficult for both partners to have jobs or for women to return to full-time work after having children .
Local governments are responding to this with a variety of measures, from day care to matchmaking services. In June, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced that it would launch a dating app this summer.
Economist Takashi Kadokura said on the Yahoo Japan news blog that efforts by local governments to promote marriages are not working and marriages are not increasing because of the growing number of people working outside of employment, who find it difficult financially to start a family.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
