Source: Japan Bureau of Statistics, 1990 Population Census of Japan
3. Elderly Households in Different Prefectures
Population aging affects its household structure. As already mentioned, in keeping pace with extension of population aging, the household structure has changed as well as the number of the households with elderly has increased. In addition, differences in degree of population aging between prefectures have brought different aspects of household structure between prefectures. The percentage of total households in the elderly households, or the households with the elderly of 65 and over presented 29.1% in 1995. Among 47 prefectures Yamagata indicated the highest (47.1%). Including Yamagata, the prefectures of Shimane, Akita, Tottori, Toyama, Fukui, Niigata and Saga, those which are located along the coast of Japan Sea excluding Saga, presented larger than 40%. On the other hand, Tokyo metropolitan prefecture showed the smallest (21.1%). The prefectures constituting metropolitan areas such as Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi and Osaka, including Tokyo, presented less than 25% (Table 7).