South of Hiroshima on the Seto Inland Sea, lies a group of islands. It's one of the most beautiful places in Japan - but also the most geriatric area on the planet. They're known as 'the Islands of the Aged'. In Okikamuro the average age is 71. Catch a cab and chances are your taxi driver will be 85. Get a haircut from an 84 year old. Watch the children play except they're life-size mannequins placed there to cheer the place up. With the longest life expectancy and one of the world's lowest birth rates, Japan is in for a massive demographic change. In 6 years the population will start to shrink. By the end of the century forecasts say it will have halved. "Never has a country aged so quickly, as Japan's will do so in the next 10-15 years". Japanese businessmen are forecast to soon be paying up to 75% of their income; in tax, insurance and pensions; and this is already being partly blamed for crippling the Japanese economy.

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