And although customers currently bear the expense of going to stores themselves, they are reluctant to pay for their shopping to be brought to them instead.

ECONOMIST: Online grocers

And the biggest expense they bear will be the taxes and contributions that are supporting pension, health care, and nursing programs for the older generation.

FORBES: Generational Accounting and Japan's Social Welfare State

Pensioners would be better off, possibly at the expense of future taxpayers, who would bear the burden of repaying the government's more costly debt.

ECONOMIST: A call to set up a sovereign-wealth fund