Japan: the problems of employment of elderly workers

As a result of the progressive aging of the population and the decline in the number of young workers, Japan faces the challenge of using the potential of still inactive labor resources. One of the ways to solve the problem is to increase the employment of senior citizens, especially since the state of health of most of them allows them to work for quite a long time. In Japan, a lot has been done in this direction. In particular, the laws adopted in the 2000s-2010s significantly improved the employment conditions of elderly citizens, which led to a marked increase in their level of economic activity in the past ten years. However, certain institutional restrictions that impede the further expansion of their participation in the economy of the country continue to exist. First of all, it is the teinen - the age limit on the employee’s stay in the company (60 years). Although all companies became legally obliged to extend the employment of workers even after teinen (until they reach the pension age, i.e. 65 years), in practice, after 60 years, for many workers, not only their working conditions but also their social status change. These changes affect not only the position of the cohort of the 60 to 64-year-old Japanese, but also predetermine the character of the employment of the cohort following it - citizens aged 65-69. Certain obstacles are created by the system of deductions from the pensions of working pensioners as well. In recent years, the problem of employment of elderly Japanese has acquired a special significance due to the fact that millions of people who were born during the first post-war baby boom (1947-1949) and several years later joined their ranks. They are more educated than former pensioners, have greater professional experience and high qualifications, and have a fairly high level of consumption. Expanding their participation in the economy would not only help to alleviate the increasingly acute problem of labor shortages, but would also help to sustain economic growth and reduce the burden on the social security system.

пожилые работники, формы занятости, тэйнэн, пенсии, трудовая мотивация, заработная плата, финансовые активы, elderly workers, forms of employment, teinen, pensions, labor motivation, wages, financial assets

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