Market Trends

Domestic Education

The annual number of births in Japan peaked at two million in 1975, and has been on a downward trend ever since. In 2017, the number of births had decreased by nearly half of the peak level, at 0.94 million. Going forward, the number of children is expected to continue to decrease, with the annual number of births projected to decline by around 1.5% per year on average.

Although Japan's birthrate has continued to decline, the supplementary education market was worth ¥1,462.0 billion in fiscal 2016 and remained mostly on a par with fiscal 2011. The supplementary education market includes cram and prep schools, correspondence courses, tutoring, study guides and workbooks and preschool education.

The correspondence course market (for preschool children/ elementary to senior high school students) in fiscal 2016 was worth ¥117.6 billion. This figure accounted for 8.0% of the supplementary education market. Benesse has a large share of the correspondence course market, at 83% in fiscal 2016. The size of the cram and prep schools market in fiscal 2016 was ¥962.0 billion, accounting for 65.8% of the supplementary education market as a whole.

Nursing Care

With the ongoing aging of the population, the number of people who require nursing care has also continued to increase. To resolve the issue of nursing care for elderly, the nursing care insurance system under the social insurance system was enacted in 2000. Since then, the domestic nursing care market*1 has expanded rapidly, with the total cost of nursing care in fiscal 2015 at ¥9.1 trillion, a 2.2% increase over the previous fiscal year. As of April 2017, the number of people receiving nursing care insurance services in Japan was 5.54 million, unchanged from a year earlier.

In 2017, Japan's total population continued to age rapidly, with the number of people aged 65 or older topping 27.7% of the total population*2, an increase of 0.4 of a percentage point compared to the previous year. This trend is projected to continue into the future. By 2025, the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to represent over 30% of the population.

• *1 Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "Status Report on the Long-term Care Insurance Projects"
• *2 Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Statistics Bureau "Current Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2017)"