TOKYO (AP) -- The leaders of Japan and Finland agreed Tuesday to work more closely together on issues such as population aging, climate change, the global food crisis and rising oil prices, officials said.

Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and his Finnish counterpart, Matti Vanhanen, pledged to share experience and expertise as both countries decide how best to deal with their rapidly aging populations, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Japan and Finland are among the world's fastest aging countries, and the situation has caused concern over possible strains on government services and future labor shortages.

Aging is "a challenge that both of our countries face," Fukuda said.

Japan's government said Japanese aged 65 or over made up 21.5 percent of the country's population last year. In Finland, the proportion of the same age group has doubled to 15 percent from 7 percent in the 1950s.

In a joint press announcement after the talks, Vanhanen praised Japan's newly announced target of cutting domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent from current levels by 2050, and encouraged him to also "adopt an ambitious medium-term target for Japan as we have done in the European Union."

The EU has set a medium-term target to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Vanhanen arrived in Japan on Saturday for a five-day working visit to promote political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries.

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