Japan's older men are less healthy, women face widening health gaps despite pension reforms

Health inequalities among older Japanese adults changed over the last two decades. Some health gaps for older men narrowed, but their stress and anxiety increased, and older women saw their health gaps widen.

Governments thought that making older people work longer and changing pensions would make them healthier and more equal. This paper shows that is not what happened. Some health measures improved, but stress for men and overall health for women got worse. Now, Japanese officials and other countries with aging populations have specific data. They can no longer assume their policies are working as intended.