For subscribers
Ageing workers in East Asia are essential. More are needed
Yet they often face high barriers to employment and unpalatable options.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Japan has more than 1,300 Silver Human Resource Centres, which help match people aged 60 or above with job opportunities.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Economist
Honda Tamiko began working as a child on her family’s farm back when Japan was at war with America. Now 93, she still puts in a hard day’s toil as a janitor at a McDonald’s branch in Kumamoto, in southern Japan. Honda says her pension is plenty to live off; she chooses to keep showing up. “Humans are animals, after all,” she chuckles. “We have to keep moving as much as we can.”
Honda is the oldest of some 220,000 McDonald’s crew in Japan. But she is less an outlier than a harbinger. As people live longer, they are staying healthy for longer and working longer, too.
