Your front page story “Japan wrestles with age-old problem as population declines at record rate” (Report, April 13) and the letter in the same edition from Tim Hill, “A gently declining population is no reason to panic”, both describe what all societies face as they modernise in the 21st century.

Alongside World Cancer Day on February 4, Global Coalition on Aging has released a new report on improving cancer care for older cancer patients, How to Better Support Older Adults and Their Families for Shared Decision-Making About Cancer Care

In Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo, one in four residents is older than sixty-five — and that’s the youngest the population will be for a long while to come. Policy makers around the globe would do well to take notes from their response to the aging megatrend.

Adult immunisation is key to building sustainable health systems, workforces and societies. So what will it take to make it a standard of care, similar to pediatric immunisation and cancer screenings?

What if the medicines we rely on to overcome infections are no longer able to protect us from known diseases that would become potentially fatal? Unfortunately, that's what we're about to see happen.