TOKYO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan's elderly people have accounted for 28.4 percent of its population, hitting a record high, Japanese government statistics revealed Sunday.

The country's seniors constituted 12.9 percent of Japan's labor force in 2018, also a record high, according to data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

Japan, with the world's oldest population, has 35.88 million people aged 65 or older, up 320,000 compared to 2017, according to the data released prior to Monday's Respect for the Aged Day.

The population of Japanese aged 90 or older stands at 2.31 million, including 70,000 at 100 years old or above.

Old people will account for 30.0 percent of the Japanese population in 2025 and reach 35.3 percent in 2040, according to forecast by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that Japan's population aged 50 or older who are jobless could increase 29 percent to reach 59 per 100 workers in the country by 2050.

According to the study, the jobless situation in Japan's older population would strain public retirement schemes. Enditem

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