In fiscal 2025, Japan’s national government spent ¥79.8 trillion on pension, healthcare and long-term care programmes. That is about ¥220 billion a day. Japan’s fiscal year runs from April to March.
A number that large means very little on its own. So I decided to draw it.
Looking at the budget as one citizen
The idea came from a budget visualization site published by a political party. Looking at it, I wondered how the budget would look through the eyes of one citizen.
I care for my parents at home. Yet I could not explain where the money behind long-term care comes from or where it goes. I am part of this system, and I did not know how it worked.
So I worked with AI to build the Aging Japan Budget Map from the government’s public review data. It is an independent project with no link to any party or government.
It covers 602 programmes run by the health ministry’s pension, healthcare and long-term care bureaus. Of these, 509 recorded spending in fiscal 2025.
Three fields, three very different paths
Once drawn on one chart, the differences were clear.
| Field | FY2025 spending | Main destination |
|---|---|---|
| Pensions | ¥52.1 trillion | 98.6% directly to beneficiaries |
| Healthcare | ¥24.5 trillion | 59.0% to public insurers and other public bodies |
| Long-term care | ¥3.1 trillion | 99.5% to local governments |
Pensions travel almost straight from the state to each beneficiary. Two programmes, the Basic Pension and the Employees’ Pension, make up more than 60% of the whole map.
Healthcare runs through the insurance system, splitting mainly between public insurers and local bodies.
Long-term care goes almost entirely to local governments. National money reaches care mainly through them.
The money outside the map is larger
This was my biggest discovery.
The map shows ¥3.1 trillion for long-term care. Yet the total cost of long-term care insurance is ¥14.6 trillion on a fiscal 2026 budget basis. Healthcare is similar. The map shows ¥24.5 trillion, while national medical care expenditure was ¥48.1 trillion in fiscal 2023.
The years and scope differ, so these cannot be divided into a neat share. Still, much of the premium income, local spending and out-of-pocket payments flows outside this map.
I had assumed the national budget would show everything. It does not.
Funding needs care too. About ¥64 trillion appears as special-account spending, yet the Basic Pension includes tax funding. A special account does not mean premiums alone.
AI is fast, but humans still ask the question
One moment stayed with me.
The first version used fiscal 2024 figures, because the latest CSV files stopped there. AI reported that as the newest data.
Then I asked, “What about as of November 2026?” It turned out the government site already held the 2026 sheets. Only the CSV files were missing. We replaced every number, and ¥76.9 trillion became ¥79.8 trillion.
AI can finish in a day what would take a person weeks. But someone still has to ask, “Is that really the latest?”
See first, judge later
The map does not judge any programme, and it is not meant to blame anyone. Before asking whether something is right or wrong, I wanted to know what is actually happening.
This is a prototype. Classification is automatic, so errors may remain. Programme names in English are my own unofficial translations, and I will check the figures when the official CSV files appear. If you spot a mistake, please tell me.
How to pay for old age is not only Japan’s question. We argue about the burden of an aging society all the time. But how many of us have looked at the flow of money with our own eyes?
I hope this offers a useful hint to someone, somewhere.
View the Aging Japan Budget Map
For talks and advice on Japan’s aging society, please contact me here.