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Japan's silver-haired seniors still punching the time clock

20 Comments
By Daniel Leussink

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I'm totally for old people being able to continue working if it keeps them happy and makes them feel younger.

But I'm worried larger companies will take advantage of this and pay retirees less in order to save themselves money and still keep wages low for their current workers.

If you can find a senior to work for less, what's the motivation to give someone who hasn't retired yet and has no guarantee of a full pension what they're really worth now.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

One of (and I stress the "one of") the things that surprised me the most about Japan upon my arrival about 35 years ago was the work ethic of the Japanese people as a whole, and the "genki" of the elderly !

2 ( +3 / -1 )

It's a shame that some of these senior workers have to put up with near slave wages for back-breaking work. Down here it is quite common to see seniors working for 5,000 per day, cutting trees, pulling weeds, construction work, guards, etc.

Many do it to survive. It's a sad commentary about a society that forces it's elderly to work into their 70's and 80's to put food in their mouths.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Regardless of getting paid or not, doing something even after the mandatory retirement age will presumably help prevent aging. And what's more, if they have good English skills, giving their comments on articles, for example, in JAPANTODAY, can probably help prevent dementia. :‑)

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

That will be me if I stay in Japan after 'official' retirement age. Already my mother-in-law is telling her husband that he has to keep working after 65, but he's not happy as he's a barber and suffering from backache poor bloke!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My favorite is the people who happily say, "I'm retired!" in their business suits and on their way to work.

Me: you're retired?

Old guy: Yes! For a few years now.

Me: So... (Looking at suit)... Where are you headed today?

Old guy: work.

Me: So, retired, but off to work. Okay. New job?

OG: No. Same place.

Me: okay. Different position?

OG: Same. But I work less than before.

Me: ah! Okay!

OG: before it was six days a week, now it's just five plus "zangyou sa-bisu".

Me: ... I'm guessing the pay is less.

OG: About a third of what I made two days before retiring and starting again, and no benefits. But I get part of my national pension already even though I'm working.

Me: ...

Of COURSE they're still working! Huge numbers of seniors are in poverty.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Working because they need to. No romantic nonsense, please.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

People who were born in 1963 or later are not going to be able to collect their pensions here until they turn 65, Even today, just because a person turns 60 and retires officially does not mean they can collect their pensions right away either. They have to wait until they are 62 to collect. In the meantime many collect unemployment for 18 months or so and a special benefit that they can apply for to cover until they turn 62. THAT however is for people who have paid into the pension scheme and are eligible.

There are tons of variables and situations that one "rule" does not cover everyone.

Many major businesses now are letting people "retire" at 60 and then stay on as contracted employees, if both sides wish it, key word there BOTH sides, and as a contracted employee they pretty much do the same job without benefits.

Is it fair? Probably not. Does it help? According to some recently "retired" folks I know, YES big time, as without the income they would be on welfare. So they continue to work.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I work alongside an older gent. He's handy at landscaping. Trimming shrubberies and such. A bit past the Sell Date, as he's allergic to heavy work. He is knowledgeable, no doubt. But cantankerous, abrasive and contradictory. Nobody calls him on his flaws because "respect age". That's his Card. And boy does he play that Card. Get used to it: the Oldsters are filling the gap young couples were supposed to. No offspring = geriatric patch. **Now in shakey hands performance mode pre-lunch, smooth steady hands with bonus alcoholic breath after! Yay. Rotated the dude out to another job today.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

as a contracted employee they pretty much do the same job without benefits

If it's the same job (at a greatly reduced salary, no bonus) they're lucky. The husband of one friend was moved from his engineering design job to handling customer complaints; instead of sitting at his desk he's travelling all over the Kanto area, and everywhere he goes he has to deal with irate customers and complaints about problems he didn't create. His blood pressure has gone up, his cholesterol levels are up, and his doctor has advised him to 'avoid stress'. He's seriously considering throwing in the towel and living on savings until the person kicks in. No income for four years, that won't be stressful.... The husband of another friend, six months after being 'rehired' in the 'same job' was ordered to accept a post over four hours away from home, i.e. tanshin funin. He did quit.

Is it fair?

Hell no.

Does it help?

What would help would be companies being legally obliged to extend the retirement age to at least the pension age. The current 5-year gap is absurd.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

No income for four years, that won't be stressful....

If he is 61 and has paid into the system he should be able to collect his pension at 62 or 63 years of age. He also will have nearly two years of unemployment benefits available as well, which are tax free, and he can get extended benefits too and apply for an extra supplementary income benefit as well.

He CAN quit whenever, it's his choice not to.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Wow old people punching clocks and not getting hurt. Tough oldsters here.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

There's also the issue, at least for many retired folks, that if you get another job to supplement the (often meager) pension, you have to be careful not to make too much.

If your total monthly income exceeds a certain amount, your social security amount will be reduced. In one case I know of, the pensioner had to keep his total (job income + social security) below 180,000/month from 62 when he started getting SS until he turned 65 recently, when the ceiling became 460,000, I believe. He's very unlikely to hit that, though, since his SS is a bit under 100,000/month. Not many jobs for senior citizens pay over 360,000/month.

He was really just scraping by for a couple of years there, though. Somewhat perversely, he's worried because he's in good health. His savings won't last if he lives too long. On the other hand, if he doesn't keep working now and try to continue saving, there's no way that he'll be able to afford a nursing home if/when he needs it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

more than 20 percent of Japanese older than 65 still work.

That's all good as long as they aren't driving a vehicle to & from work. The poor kids going to school (& other pedestrians) get plowed by these old geezers from time to time. Its a shame the prefecture unten menkyo centers negligently keep "renewing" their drivers licenses.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

If he is 61 and has paid into the system he should be able to collect his pension at 62 or 63 years of age. He also will have nearly two years of unemployment benefits available as well

He can apparently claim part of his pension from 63, so that's two years to fill in.

Leaving employment after retirement age, even after working for over 20 years, entitles a person to only 150 days of unemployment benefit. Also the dole is calculated based on the income earned in the previous 6 months, when the company are using him as cheap labour; unemployment benefit is a pittance. And it still leaves him with 1 year 7 months with no income before the partial pension kicks in.

If it were me, I think I'd be stressed.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They behaved for most of them without realizing that they had been very rich during the golden age some less than 30 years ago. They all forgot to buy flats to rent, invest in foreign shares or simply gold. Makes me think of "the cicada and the ant" tale. Then if you haven't been able to save during your life, you deserve nothing. Anyway, they are slave to the system. Be despised by your neighbours because you have your personal passions (scale modelling, astronomy, NGO...) Or work for a pittance I speak again by experience as I succeded a senior going for retirement that told me he was earning twice as less (he was working a bit less though under different type of stress). Moreover, half of the staff I was managing were 65 over! I warned of the age cliff ahead but no one seemed to realize (very little mentoring of the younger ones) My parents at same age are enjoying family members, neighbour help services, travelling, etc. Retirement is what you believe it to be but being slave of company to enrich the cronies is not what I am fond of. Last, care homes are more hospices just to die!for most of them in Japan. Gloomy future.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

They all forgot to buy flats to rent

If they had cash to buy outright, I would agree with you; but most of those 'rich' people had the choice of renting the place they lived in (no wealth creation there, right?) or taking out a mortgage at bubble prices that hung around their necks for the next 25-30 years. And if they had a couple of kids, putting them through the education system would take a hefty bite out of any savings. Easy to say now what people cudda shudda done..

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Don't you get a reduced pension if you start collecting it early? If you've made it to 60 as a Japanese man, the average life expectancy is nearly 83. For women, its 88. That's a long time to be receiving a reduced pension.

Something like 1 in 2 people need some kind of assistance from mid 80s onwards. It may only be a day visitor, but about 85 is where the proportion of people needing help really ramps up. The standard model is to rely on family, but at that age, any children will typically be in their fifties and will be staring their own meagre retirement provisions in the face.

The demographic shift in Japan was all easily predictable at least thirty years ago. Given what they've done to indebted poor countries, I hesitate to recommend the IMF for anything, but they put out Japanese-authored document called "Pension Reforms in Japan" a few years ago. It describes the savings that can be made from raising the retirement age, cutting benefits, and making dependent spouses contribute. It's a pretty good read and here's the abstract.

This paper analyzes various reform options for Japan’s public pension in light of large fiscal consolidation needs of the country. The most attractive option is to increase the pension eligibility age in line with high and rising life expectancy. This would have a positive effect on long-run economic growth and would be relatively fair in sharing the burden of fiscal adjustment between younger and older generations. Other attractive options include better targeting by “clawing back” a small portion of pension benefits from wealthy retirees, reducing preferential tax treatment of pension benefit incomes, and collecting contributions from dependent spouses of employees, who are currently eligible for pension benefits even though they make no contributions. These options, if implemented concurrently, could reduce the government annual subsidy and the government deficit by up to 1¼ percent of GDP by 2020.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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