Hopu-Ken restaurant has been serving ramen since 1960. Facing the 2021 Olympics stadium in the heart of Tokyo, the restaurant’s yellow window is still open. You gobble down your bowl standing up. At night, it’s a popular spot for taxi drivers. They gather there for a short break during their workday, which often lasts more than twenty hours straight.
Many are elderly and do this work out of obligation, due to lack of sufficient income to survive their retirement. “My first job was in sales. Going door to door wasn’t for me. I stopped and became a taxi driver.”explains one of them, tall and corpulent, who wishes to remain anonymous. At over 65, he does not know how long he will be able to drive. Recurrent back pain could force him to quit smoking sooner than he would like.
Working long after retirement age is not unusual in Japan, where the working population is shrinking due to ageing. One third of the population is over 65. According to official statistics, 10.1% of Japanese are even over 80, representing 12.6 million people in this archipelago of 125.1 million inhabitants. Faced with the severe labour shortage affecting businesses, the government is relaxing the rules to authorise work later and later. From September 2023, taxi drivers will be able to work until they are 80.
Very flexible contracts
Officially, it is possible to retire at 60. But the pension is often too low to live on. This is the case for a septuagenarian who does laundry or cleaning jobs in restaurants for a day, or even a few hours, to earn a painful 100,000 yen (642 euros) a month. “I can’t be satisfied with just receiving social assistance”This gray-haired lady confesses that she has always lived in precarious jobs and says she is willing to work “ten more years”She lives alone with her cat, plays table tennis and grows cacti.
Many older people prefer jobs close to home, especially in convenience stores that offer very flexible contracts, sometimes just two hours a day once a week. At the age of 60, Kunio Anzai was retired by his employer in the transport sector. He was then rehired by the same company, as permitted by law, but on a fixed-term, part-time contract. In this context, he can stay up to the age of 67. “Today I work three days a week, from 6 to 11 am.”. Then he accepted a job at a convenience store. The activity does not displease him, because “There are many exchanges and encounters”.
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