Japan’s biggest paper company is to stop making nappies for children to concentrate on adult incontinence pads, in a stark illustration of how a low birth rate and an ageing population are transforming the country.
Oji Holdings announced that it will stop catering for Japanese babies this September after annual sales of infant nappies fell from 700 million in 2001 to 400 million. The company will continue to sell them in Malaysia and Indonesia, but in its domestic market it will focus on nappies for adults.
The market is booming: manufacturers have even held fashion shows in which models paraded down catwalks in the latest incontinence pads. It is more than a decade since nappy makers reported that sales of the adult product had outstripped
