Looking back to 2025
Yoshie Doi
As 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the Showa era, we looked back on the Showa era. The most serious issue facing 2025 will be that all of the baby boomers will be over 75 years old, and it is predicted that Japan will face a labor shortage of approximately 3.41 million people by 2030. This will not only be an issue of successors for long-established businesses, but will also be a labor shortage throughout society.
In terms of Japan’s population, this would be so large that the population of Shikoku would disappear (Shikoku’s population as of January 1, 2025: 3.6 million). Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about how hospitals and nursing homes are full, leaving many people unable to be admitted or admitted, causing problems for many people. This is a global population problem.
75% of all businesses worldwide are taking measures to address the talent shortage. There are fewer people available to work for the company.
So, to save the situation, a global emergency project is being undertaken: the introduction of humanoid robots. It is predicted that without their introduction, the world’s social infrastructure will collapse. The Japanese government has already spent over 10 billion yen this year to support robot development. For middle-aged and older people, robots tend to be thought of as something that only happens in anime, but in reality, budgets are beginning to be allocated to the robot market.
Global companies Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI invested more than 100 billion yen in 2024 alone.
I encountered security robots patrolling the Porta shopping mall in Kyoto Station several times. In response to the expected shortage of personnel, the robots patrol the mall on their own, aiming to coordinate security robots with manned security operations. In many ways, this episode suggests the arrival of a new era.
Japan’s climate has also changed so much that it feels as though spring and autumn have disappeared and there are now only two seasons. As a result, some people close to me have suffered from heatstroke. In many ways, 2025 has taught me to look to the future from a completely new perspective, rather than simply continuing along the same lines as before.
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Translated by Masami Otani
