Oji Holdings announced that company will no longer be producing infant diapers in Japan due to the country’s rapidly aging population, focusing instead on the adult market, according to reports.
This changing approach is also consistent with the national trend that Japanese businesses have been observing in the wake of the country’s extremely low birth rate.
Sales of adult diapers have exceeded those of infant diapers for almost ten years, a sign of the altered Japanese old-age model. A 5.1% decline in 2023 from 758,631 to the lowest level since the 19th century indicates fewer births, which contrast sharply with the two million births that took place in the 1970s.
Oji Holdings’s subsidiary Oji Nepia currently produces 400 million baby diapers a year, however that figure is declining from a peak of 700 million in 2001. According to Unicharm, the growth of the adult diaper market even surpasses that of the infant diaper market in 2011. There are distinct market trends.
Japan is a prime example of a country where the demographics are changing, with over 10% of the population over 80 years old and 30% of the population over 65.
Furthermore, the company plans to keep producing diapers in Malaysia and Indonesia in order to meet the anticipated demand in these regions.
From an economic perspective, Japan faces issues related to population growth, which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is acknowledging.
