Why New Businesses for Older People End in an “Easy Failure,” and Three Perspectives to Consider First
As Japan’s population ages, more and more companies whose core business has nothing to do with older people are considering new businesses for older households. At the same time, many of them spend only a short time on the question, conclude that “there is no market” or “it won’t be profitable,” and in effect choose an “easy failure.”
Businesses for older people operate in a market where many people and organizations are intricately involved, within Japan’s community-based integrated care system. This article narrows things down to three perspectives worth keeping in mind before you begin.
1. The customer is not only the older person
In services for older people, many people besides the users themselves take part in decisions: family members, care managers, hospital medical social workers (MSWs), community general support centers and others. Some services are aimed at people who find it hard to express their own wishes about a contract. If you design a business without working out “who decides what, and when,” the service will not reach people even when the need is there.
Our training textbook maps the relationships between older people, their families and the professionals and businesses around them in a diagram (Vol. 5, “The people, products, services, money and credentials that make up the market” (note, in Japanese)).
2. Needs surface at specific moments
Needs related to shukatsu (end-of-life planning) come to the surface with life events such as hospital admission and discharge, care-need certification, moving into a care facility, or inheritance. Where you make contact with customers, and how you lead them from a first-contact “entry business” to related services, can decide whether a business succeeds.
This idea is explained in detail in Vol. 2, “Structure of the end-of-life planning market and business opportunities” (note, in Japanese), through the “waves of shukatsu” and the two-stage structure of entry businesses and growth businesses.
3. Design partnerships with local organizations around what actually happens on the ground
To run a business within the community-based integrated care system, partnerships with local government and community organizations are essential. In practice, though, partnerships often do not work the way they look on paper, so it is important to keep checking what people on the ground are saying and to redesign as you go.
Vol. 3, “Business models in the care field” (note, in Japanese) presents the results of a field survey on partnerships with community general support centers, and the alternative approach we drew from it.
Start with the free Vol. 1
Vol. 1, “The big picture of Japan’s older population and end-of-life planning,” of our Senior End-of-Life Planning Business: Comprehensive Training Textbook (Annotated Edition, 2026) is available free of charge as a PDF (in Japanese). It covers where the senior market stands today in the latest data, the life events that change with age and care level, and examples of customer journeys.
For English-language readers, Vol. 1 of our English edition, Senior End-of-Life Planning Textbook: The Market and Its Businesses, covers the market and its core businesses in English (see the English edition).
If you would like to discuss a business plan or using our materials for in-house training, please feel free to contact us.
Related articles
The original Japanese version of this column is also published on note (read it on note, in Japanese). On note, we add a new column every Tuesday to our magazine “Shukatsu Business Columns (Every Tuesday)” (in Japanese).
This is an English translation of a column originally published in Japanese by Next Co., Ltd.
About Next Co., Ltd. We support companies in Japan’s senior care and end-of-life planning (shukatsu) market through research, business development and training. Our English textbook, Senior End-of-Life Planning Textbook, explains the market from the big picture down to day-to-day practice, including senior housing and care facility placement consulting. See the English edition | Buy on Gumroad | Contact us
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