LIKE many firms in Aichi prefecture, Japan’s manufacturing heartland, Nishijimax, a maker of machine tools for the car industry, is struggling to find workers. Its solution in a country with a drum-tight labour market is one that is increasingly common in Japan: raising the age of retirement. More than 30 of the company’s 140 employees are over 60; the oldest is 82. Putting qualified people out to pasture early is a waste, says Hiroshi Nishijima, a manager; “If they want to work, they should.”
Since peaking at over 67m in the late 1990s, Japan’s workforce has shrunk by about 2m. The government says it could collapse to 42m by mid-century as the population ages and shrinks. The number of foreigners inched up in 2015 to a record high of 2.2m, but that is far from enough to fill the labour gap. Instead of opening its doors wider to immigrants, Japan is trying to make more use of its own people who are capable of working.
Large companies in Japan mostly set a mandatory retirement age of 60—mainly as a way of reducing payroll costs in a system that rewards seniority. But other businesses are less stringent. About 12.6m Japanese...Continue reading
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