, Columnist
Aging Singapore Tries to Avoid the Japan Trap
A strong currency and subsidies for low-income workers offer a contrasting approach to the challenge of an aging society.
A different strategy for an old problem.
Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg
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Japan has aged; Singapore is aging. Japan’s workforce is shrinking; Singapore’s has plateaued. Japan’s homogeneous society has struggled with immigration; Singapore’s island culture has been welcoming of foreigners, though increasingly less so.
So is the city-state scoring an own-goal by inviting a demographic decline and Japanese-style lost decades?