Age discrimination limiting job opportunities for Japanese elderly

Discrimination can take many forms. It affects how we are viewed based on our gender, race and other factors. Age can unfortunately be one of these, meaning older job seekers face unnecessary challenges when looking for work. Despite its rapidly aging population, Japan still struggles with age discrimination in the working world. It affects all age groups to some degree, but it hits the elderly especially hard as they try to find and hold on to jobs.

Traditionally, Japanese companies who hire for permanent positions prefer fresh graduates out of university. Age discrimination here can begin relatively early in a worker’s career.

Japanese people as young as 30 or 40 on career tracks who are laid off or try to find new work may find themselves limited to temporary or contract jobs for years. For such people, it can be difficult to get back on the path to stable employment.

Even Japanese workers who manage to stay at the same company or a stable career path until their later years may face forms of discrimination when nearing retirement. Japan has recently approved laws raising the retirement age to 70, though for years it was 65. Despite this, many Japanese companies still set their retirement ages at 60. They also often force employees aged 60 into new contracts, which may have worse conditions or different duties than before.

According to a survey by the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare in Japan, only around 20% of companies either raised or abolished mandatory retirement ages. The remaining 80% use what is called a keizoku koyou seido, or continued employment system. It usually puts older workers on the aforementioned contracts with worse conditions.

Another survey conducted by Japanese site Shufu JOB said that over 50% of respondents felt age discrimination in some form. 56.2% of total respondents said that they couldn’t even apply to jobs because of age limits. Breaking that down by age group, an overwhelming 71.4% of those in their 50s and even 39.7% of respondents in their 30s and younger say they have experienced age restrictions when applying for work.

Assumptions form the discrimination that the elderly face

What’s tragic about discrimination in the workforce is how it prevents diversity provided by people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. In the case of older workers, they have a wealth of experience and knowledge to draw on, yet still face unnecessary challenges when finding new work.

Some of these challenges take the form of financial concerns from the company, which may fear that older workers would expect a higher salary. Other times it comes in the form of workplace culture fit. Older workers may face discriminatory questions doubting their ability to work with younger employees. In any case, these are biases that focus more on assumptions about groups rather than the individual and their abilities and desires, which is a form of discrimination.

Elderly Japanese who want to contribute to their communities and live happy lives do have options for other forms of employment. While not every senior citizen wants to continue working full time, those who do should not face any barriers.

It may be impossible to truly eliminate all forms of bias. However, equality can only be achieved when we do our best to give individuals a chance based on their own merits, and not assumptions based on their demographic. Limiting opportunities based on age is a detriment to creating a fairer society that benefits from everyone’s contributions.