Fig. 2

Estimated dependent persons per industry expert in Japan. a Education sector from 1950 to the present day. Statistical datasets for kindergartens plus nursery schools were available only from 2002. K., kindergarten; Univ., university; E.S., elementary school; H.S., high school; K. + N.S., kindergarten and nursery; J.S., junior high school. b Medical and health-care sector. Dr., physician; Ns., nurse; Ph., pharmacist; E.T., emergency medical technician. Physician and pharmacist data were available from 1955; nurse and helper data are from 1960 and 1990, respectively. Japan started licensing emergency medical technicians in 2000. Statistical data were recorded every 5 years from 1955 to 1970 but every 2 years since 1970. c Social security sector. The data for the Self-Defense Forces are from 1955, firefighters from 1956, and police officers from 1981. d Infrastructure sector from 1953. 1) Agriculture and forestry; 2) transport and communication; 3) construction; 4) wholesale and retail trade, eating and drinking places; 5) manufacturing; 6) fisheries (right); and 7) electricity, gas, heat supply, and water (right). Data for electricity, gas, heat supply, and water were available from 1968. The industrial categories were revised in 2002—especially for transport and communication and wholesale and retail trade, eating and drinking places. A category bearing the legend “right” indicates that the vertical axis is measured on the right vertical axis owing to a different scale of dependence compared with other closely related populations