'Work, Work, Work' stops at 60 in Japan. It shouldn't

The country is notorious for toiling hard and yet its labour laws make it harder for older workers to fully contribute.

- Gearoid Reidy

After being elected head of Japan’s ruling party, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s pledge to “work, work, work, work, work” for the people made such an impact that, even in a nation known for toiling hard, it was voted “buzzword of the year”.

It's ironic, then, that she heads a country that often denies many older workers the opportunity to fully contribute.

I am, fortunately, some way off having to think about retirement. But it’s been shocking to me that friends only a little older, in their early 50s, are already reflecting on winding down. The reason is that many Japanese companies still enforce some form of semi-retirement at the age of just 60 that shunts employees into lower-paid positions.

Unlike many countries, Japan has no mandatory retirement age—only a minimum. Companies can’t enforce it below 60, must retain full-time workers who want to remain until 65, and are encouraged to keep them until 70.

But in reality, what this means is that most still hew to the practice of enforcing staff to step down at 60, then rehiring them on rolling one-year contracts. That both reduces their productivity and salary often by as much as 50 per cent.