Cologne, Germany - Senior citizens should be encouraged to take a more active role in political and cultural life, experts from Germany and Japan said on Wednesday.

Elderly people will have a more profound influence on life in both countries in the future than children and young people, said Professor Koji Ueda, director of the Japanese Cultural Centre in Cologne.

Professor Sawako Hanyu of Ochanomizu University in Tokyo said half of Japan's population would be over the age of 60 in 2050. They should be active in shaping their lives, he told a seminar.

Early retirement was not a good idea because work is one of the most important links older people have to the rest of society, said Keiro Hattori, a professor at Meiji Gakuin University in the Japanese capital.

Japan was ageing fasting than other countries, he said, pointing out that the general population had actually declined in some rural areas, with only older people living there.

It was important to make these regions more attractive through opening more shops or employing more doctors, Hattori said. Otherwise there was a danger of villages and small towns dying out in the next few decades.(dpa)