TOKYO – Japan’s seniors accounted for 28.4 percent of its population and 12.9 percent of its labor force in 2018, both record highs, government data showed Sunday.

The number of those aged 65 or older in the country, which has the world’s oldest population, stood at 35.88 million, up 320,000 from a year earlier, according to data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry prior to Monday’s Respect for the Aged Day holiday.

The ratio of seniors remained well above 23.0 percent in Italy, the second most aged society.

The number of Japanese aged 90 or older reached 2.31 million, including 70,000 centenarians.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research projects that Japan’s elderly will make up 30.0 percent of the population in 2025 and 35.3 percent in 2040.

The ratio of seniors with jobs increased for the 15th consecutive year as the country faced a deepening labor shortage. Of the 8.62 million seniors with jobs, 3.50 million were women.

The biggest employer of seniors was the wholesale and retail industry, with 1.27 million elderly workers, followed by agriculture and forestry with 1.07 million.