jobs in japan " loading="lazy" style="clear:both; float:left; padding:10px 10px 10px 0px;border:0px; max-width: 340px;">LIKE many corporations in Aichi prefecture, Japan’s manufacturing heartland, Nishijimax, a maker of machine tools for the car trade, is struggling to search out employees. Its answer in a country with a drum-tight labour market is one that's more and more common in Japan: raising the age of retirement. Since peaking at over 67m within the late 1990s, Japan’s workforce has shrunk by about 2m. The government says it could collapse to 42m by mid-century because the population ages and shrinks. The number of foreigners inched up in 2015 to a report excessive of 2.2m, however that is removed from enough to fill the labour hole. As a substitute of opening its doorways wider to immigrants, Japan is making an attempt to make more use of its personal people who are capable of working. Large corporations in Japan mostly set a mandatory retirement age of 60-mainly as a means of reducing payroll prices in a system that rewards seniority. But different companies are less stringent. About 12.6m Japanese aged 60 or older now decide to keep working, up from 8.7m in 2000. Two-thirds of Japan’s over-65s say they need to stay gainfully employed, in keeping with a government survey. The age of actual retirement for men in Japan is now close to 70, says the OECD, a wealthy-country assume-tank. In most countries individuals typically cease working before the age at which they qualify for a state pension. Japan, the place the state pension kicks in at sixty one (it is due to rise to 65 by 2025), is a uncommon exception. The greying of Japan’s workforce is clearly visible. Elderly people are increasingly seen driving taxis, serving in supermarkets and even guarding banks. Bosses are getting older, too. It is inevitable that folks will stay in the workforce longer, says Ken Ogata, the president of Koreisha, an agency that gives non permanent jobs completely to individuals over 60. He notes that the nation has little appetite for importing workers, so it will have to make extra use of pensioners, ladies and robots. Many of those who discover work via Koreisha had been as soon as workers of Tokyo Fuel, Japan’s largest supplier of pure fuel to homes. They do the identical type of labor now-reading meters and explaining the use of appliances to homeowners. “They have so much experience and data that can be put to good use,” says Mr Ogata. They will also be cheaper. Firms often rent back retirees on non-permanent contracts offering poorer phrases than their previous ones. Takashimaya, a department-store chain, has introduced a performance-based mostly system for such staff aged 60-sixty five (at no extra value to the company, it says). Japan’s labour crunch has created a chronic scarcity of nursing care for elderly people who are not match enough to work. McKinsey, a consultancy, says Japan should encourage able-bodied elderly people to assist. If 10% of them have been to take up such work, the country would have an additional 700,000 carers by 2025, it reckons. A method of encouraging this would be to give priority to those who've labored as carers when allocating locations in nursing homes, says McKinsey. It does not help, nevertheless, that the state pension system discourages some elderly individuals from working by slicing their advantages if they earn greater than a specific amount. At Nishijimax, managers clearly need elderly workers to stay. The company’s work routine is tailor-made to their needs. So, too, are the canteen’s choices-right all the way down to the lowered-salt miso soup.