Japanese companies are increasingly using the services of employees 65 years and older

According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, cited by the agency Nikkei, Japanese companies are increasingly using the services of employees 65-70 years and older. Last year, 39% of companies in the country were reported to have let their employees work to age 70 or more, double the rate a decade ago. During the same time, the share of private Japanese companies, where you can retire no earlier than 65 years old, has grown from 12% to 25%. According to World Bank For 2021, Japan, with an average life expectancy of 84 years, is in third place in the world after Hong Kong and Macau (Russia, according to the same data, is in 134th place with an indicator of 69.4 years).

Japan’s aging population, coupled with a low birth rate, is leading to a labor shortage in the country. The Nikkei notes that Japan’s working-age population (15-64) was only 59% last year. This is forcing Japanese businesses to increasingly use the services of employees aged 65 and over. It is reported that the most age-related employees (65+ years) in Japan work in sectors such as social welfare and construction (15%), and transportation (10%). For example, about 30% of bus and taxi drivers in Japan are people aged 65 and over.

Due to the aging and declining population in Japan, there has been a problem a huge amount of livable, but empty housing. By the end of 2023, the number of empty residential buildings in the country will reach 10 million, calculated agency Nikkei. By the end of 2018, there were 8.5 million of them. A few years ago, the Japanese authorities tried to reduce the growing volume of abandoned housing and began to encourage young people and low-income citizens to move into empty houses, in some cases giving them away for free. However, the initiative ran into local cultural peculiarities: many Japanese do not like secondary housing and prefer to buy new houses and apartments, so so far the measures of the authorities have not brought results.

Evgeniy Khvostik