Silver linings
曙光
英文部分选自经济学人Business版块
Business and demography
商业与人口学
Silver linings
曙光(或银发商机)
Japanese firms get better at selling to the country’s legions of elderly
越来越多的日本企业在日益庞大的银发市场上风生水起
注释：
silver lining: (困境中的)一线希望 If you talk about a silver lining, you are talking about something positive that comes out of a sad or unpleasant situation.栗子：The fall in inflation is the silver lining of the prolonged recession.通货膨胀的下降是长期经济衰退中的一线转机（摘自《柯林斯高阶英汉双解学习词典》）
A BRANCH of Renaissance, a Japanese chain of fitness centres, would not seem the likeliest place to find crowds of the elderly, but they abound. Older women chat as they leave the facilities with wet hair; a couple of seniors sit in the lounge reading books and sipping coffee. The lounge is something the chain introduced with the grey-haired in mind. “Our older clients like community and hospitality,” says Naoki Takazaka of Renaissance. All staff must make time to chat with them.
一家名为复兴的日本连锁健身中心分店，似乎是老年群体最不可能出现的地方，但他们却云集于此。老年妇女们披着湿漉漉的头发，聊着天离开健身房。一对年长的夫妇坐在休息室，读着书，饮着咖啡。该连锁集团推出休息室时，便已考虑到了老年人这一群体。复兴店的高崎直子 （Naoki Takazaka）说道，“我们的老年顾客喜欢团体活动，热情好客。”所有员工都必须安排时间与这些年长的客人们聊天。
Japan’s population is ageing more rapidly than any other country’s. Those over 65 years of age make up 28% of the population, a proportion expected to rise to 40% by 2065. Any business that wants to prosper has to cater to their needs. It is an opportunity rather than a problem, says Masahiko Uotani, chief executive of Shiseido Group, a cosmetics behemoth: older people live longer, are active for longer than past generations and are relatively rich. “But you have to take the time to find out what they actually want since it is often not what you expect,” he says.
日本人口老龄化速度远超其它国家。65岁以上人口占本国人口的28%，预计至2065年将上升到40%。任何行业想要兴起，都不得不迎合老人们的需求。老人们的需要。化妆品巨头资生堂集团首席执行官鱼谷雅彦（Masahiko Uotani）表示，这是机遇，而非麻烦：那些活得更长的老人，比以往几代活跃的时间也更多，生活相对而言也富裕。他又补充道:“但是你必须花时间找出他们的实际需求，因为他们的真实需要往往与你的设想相去甚远。”
The obvious opportunities are in care of the elderly and end-of-life services such as funerals. Big companies such as Kobe Steel and Hitachi, two industrial heavyweights, sell private housing to seniors. Several providers of nursery schools have also started care homes for the more numerous people at the other end of life. Robotics firms are developing tools to help old people live independently for longer. Manufacturers of walking sticks and adult nappies are faring well.
显而易见的商机有老年人看护以及葬礼之类的临终关怀服务。大公司如工业巨擘神户制钢和日立公司，向老年群体销售私人住房。托儿所的一些供应商,也开始为更多处于生命另一端的人们（日益繁多的老人）建造养老院。机器人公司在开发工具，帮助老人能独立生活更长的时间。拐杖制造商和成人尿布制造商现在也很兴旺。
注释：
heavyweight: someone or something that is very important or has a lot of influence←重量级人物，有影响力的人物[事物]，要人： : one of the heavyweights of the movie industry→电影业钜子之一 摘自Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 6th edition
Unexpected avenues of business are also opening up. Renaissance realised earlier than other companies that older people want to stay fit and started to offer discounted memberships for those over 60. By 2016, 30% of its customers were over 60 compared to just over 3% in 1994. People in this age group are much less likely than younger members to give up their membership, which is good for business, says Mr Takazaka.
一些意想不到的商业项目也在陆续萌芽。复兴健身中心比其他公司更早意识到老年人对保持健康的需求，针对60岁以上的人群推出优惠会员政策。截止2016年，复兴60岁以上的会员占比30%，相比之下，1994年仅占3%。这个年龄群的会员放弃会员资格的可能性远小于年轻群体。高坂（Takazaka）表示，这对健身公司而言，是件好事。
Many retirees simply want the same things as those a decade younger, slightly tweaked. O-net, Rakuten’s matchmaking arm, in 2013 launched a dating service for seniors which is growing. Shiseido beauticians go into care homes to teach old people how to do their make-up, at a cost (to the care home) of ¥10,000-20,000 ($88-177) per visit; a process with therapeutic benefits. Since older people often spend longer in a shop, making them more likely to spend, some convenience-store chains have tried to become places to socialise by adding dining facilities or having personnel make coffee rather than offering it from a machine, says Ming Li of Lawson, a chain of convenience stores.
退休人群与小十岁的人群的需求差不多，只需稍加调整。Rakuten的相亲公司O-net在2013年为老年人推出了一项相亲服务，该业务日益壮大。而资深堂的化妆师会前往养老院教老人们化妆，每课时费用为10,000至20,000日元（88-177美元）。人们认为这种课程有助于老年人身心健康。来罗森连锁便利店的明利（Ming Li）表示，老年人会在商店里花更多的时间，使得他们更有可能消费，一些连锁便利店便摆放餐桌餐具，提供手工咖啡而非机器冲泡咖啡，试图为老年人打造一个社交场所。
注释：
tweak: v. to pull and twist something with a small sudden movement.
slightly tweaked：修飾主句中縮略的younger want the things。
Companies have also noticed how, in Japan too, elderly folk are reluctant to shop online. Lawson is rolling out stocks of books in some shops while it and other convenience-store chains (so ubiquitous that older people can often walk to them) are competing with supermarkets by stocking more food, cleaning products and over-the-counter medicines.
许多公司注意到，日本的老年居民与其他国家的老年居民一样，不喜欢线上购物。罗森在一些分店里推出书籍产品，同时还和其他连锁便利店一起贩卖更多的食品、清洁产品和非处方药剂，以此与超市抗衡。便利店随处可见，老人们往往步行就能到那里。
Despite the plethora of initiatives, businesses are only in the early days of working out how to target older consumers, says Hiroyuki Murata, who heads the Centre for Studies on Ageing Societies and advises firms on targeting the silver-haired. Few companies have yet started opening early, for example, when old people say they like to get out and about. Most stores have yet to improve access for the infirm with, say, handrails (public facilities have brought in features such as slow escalator speeds).
老龄化社会研究中心的村田茂树（Hiroyuki Murata）表示，尽管方案成堆，但业界在以老年人为目标客户的道路上尚才起步。他一直建议企业展开针对银发族的项目。实际上现在还只有零星的公司开始真正朝此方向迈进，例如对于如何帮助老年人“走出去”的商业支持还是乏善可陈。大多数商店还没有改善设施方便年老体弱人群出入，比如说，安装便于年老体弱者使用的扶手(公共设施增加了诸如慢速自动扶梯之类的功能)。
Marketing to older people is another area that needs work. They want to be subtly targeted, says Mr Uotani, rather than being reminded of their age through, say, adverts using someone advanced in years or with wrinkles. “I’m 64 and I am not old!” he says. His firm seems to have pulled this off; sales of Shiseido’s Prior range of cosmetics aimed at those over 50, with simple packaging and instructions on how to use the products in a large font, have risen by 120% per year in the two years since its launch in 2015.
针对老年人的市场营销是另一个需要完善的领域。鱼谷雅彦表示，要对他们进行精准定位，而不是仅仅通过在广告中请年事已高的或者有皱纹的老年人出镜来让他们想起自己的年龄。他说，“我已年届64，然而我并未老去！”他的公司似乎在这一（市场）成功了，资生堂早些时候推出的50岁以上的人群使用的化妆品，简单的包装，放大的产品使用说明字体，自从2015年投放市场以来，两年中销售额以每年120%的速度递增。
注释：
Advanced in years：年老的、年事已高的
pull sth off：把车开到路边；克服困难完成某件事；努力实现
Another sizeable opportunity may lie in what firms can then export in terms of know-how as other countries follow Japan’s demographic trajectory. Last year Shiseido started to run its care-home cosmetics lessons in Taiwan. Renaissance has developed Synapsology, a programme of simple but ever-changing exercises for the brain, and now makes money both taking the programme into care homes and certifying people to run the course. It has struck a deal for a South Korean company to host it locally. That fits nicely with another priority of which Japanese firms often talk: becoming more global-minded.
另一块规模巨大的潜在市场可能在于日本可以向那些和他们具有同样人口发展轨迹的国家出口这种专用技术。去年资生堂就在台湾开始运营居家化妆课程。复兴开始研发Synapsology（一种神经解剖学），一种针对大脑的简单却又变化无穷的脑部锻炼程序，该项目已经开始盈利，且已经被引入护理中心，并由那些拥有专门资质的人员来进行授课。该项目已与一家韩国公司达成协议，以利于其进行本土化。这完美地诠释了日本公司一直倡导的理念：全球意识，为学日进。
翻译组：
Forest，女，自由职业，经济学人爱好者
Joe,男，阿拉伯语建筑民工，经济学人爱好者
Irene,女，前生信搬砖民工现自由职业，经济学人爱好者
校核组：
Li Xia, 女， HR, 经济学人发烧友
Roxanne，女，媒体民工，经济学人爱好者
