A difficult environment for “older” workers

Older workers face different problems in this environment. Japan’s decade of economic difficulties has placed enormous pressure on companies, straining the traditional “lifetime employment” system. Surveys offer conflicting evidence: while one recent survey showed that only 10% of employers “highly value” the lifetime employment system, another study indicated that over 50% of Japan’s companies would prefer to retain the lifetime employment system, “regardless of business results.” Job security is increasingly an issue for older Japanese.

Some employers are explicitly lowering the retirement age from 60 to 55, then 55 to 50, then 50 to 45 and in some cases even as low as 40. In fact, in Japan “older” generally refers to those over 45 years of age, hardly “old” by Western standards. Japan has no age discrimination law, but does have fairly strict workplace laws making it difficult to dismiss workers. However, companies have ways of making their desires known to their employees. Companies have been known to lower employees’ titles, decrease salaries, change job assignments and/or descriptions, and move personnel from normal office surroundings to unpleasant ones, as in a vacant or basement area. Japanese culture frowns on disputes, litigation, and confrontation, so instead of complaining, most employees faced with these situations get the hint and quit.

As a result, older workers are particularly vulnerable. Those who are forced to leave their jobs find the job market for older candidates exceedingly tight, even in the best times. Despite the difficulties some young Japanese face in finding employment, almost all job postings are for people aged 20-40. Those positions available to "older" workers are often in such categories as security personnel and taxi drivers.