BY REBECCA SHEEHAN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM 

Diapers, diapers, diapers. . . When you have a baby you just can’t have enough of the things. You are constantly adding them to any grocery list because you can never have too many diapers when you are raising a baby.

But did you know that in Japan, adult diapers are on the verge of outselling baby ones?

Japan‘s aging population, which has the highest percentage of over-65s in the world, makes up more than 20% of the country’s population. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) announced the latest data on Japan’s
population back in March, and the number of people aged 65 and over has exceeded 30,000,000 for the first time
since record keeping began in 1950. Furthermore, those aged 65 and over exceeded the number of those aged 14 and below in every region across the country. And in direct correlation with the rapid increase of the
elderly in Japan, the adult diaper market is growing at 6-10% a year ‑ and already pulls in 140 billion yen (which is $1.4 billion).

This past week The Nikkei newspaper reported that two Japanese paper companies (Daio
and Nippon Paper) are expanding their manufacturing facilities due to the expected surge in demand for “incontinence products,” – a polite way of saying adult diapers. According to Quartz.com, the Nikkei also said adult diapers are expected to outsell baby diapers in Japan by 2020, but according to Unicharm, Japan’s biggest diaper
maker, the tipping point was in 2011.

With all joking aside, adult diapers are a huge and very lucrative market in its own right. Currently they sell for as much as 2.5 times more than infant diapers, resulting in higher profit margins, and there’s also a profitable sales channel
to institutions like hospitals and nursing homes.