Thus, population ageing may affect economic growth not only directly through a reduction in the working-age population and employment (as indicated by the labor force effect in Chart 4 [3]), but also indirectly through a constant decline in labor productivity caused by a continuous demand shift – as illustrated by the per worker growth effect in the same chart.
Katagiri (2012) demonstrated that the decrease in labor productivity, together with a rise in the structural unemployment rate, contributed to the lowering of Japan’s real GDP level.