In Japan, where around 25 per cent of the population is aged 65 or above, the corporate sector has reduced its dependence on the country's shrinking population by expanding abroad. The ADB says that while developing Asia is following in the "demographic footsteps of the advanced economies, the sheer speed and scale of the transition make preparing for a greyer future all the more challenging and complex as the transition to an older population will deprive the region of one of the main drivers of its past economic success