Further to my previous post mentioned the demographic imperative for development of robotics in Japan, here's a survey article from the Economist on the general topic of Japanese demographics. The population pyramid charts are quite remarkable, bearing in mind that while continuation of the current birth rate trends aren't guaranteed, that's the best bet. Even the 40+ year-out chart is better than half a done deal already.
The article digs beyond the obvious eldercare and pensions implications to issues such as how to downsize cities and towns, and the political impact of pensions becoming the #1 issue. That last point at least sounds familiar. And while I don't know enough about Japanese politics to know whether pensions were a driving issue, the ruling LDP did take a hammering in Upper House elections this past week.