Older workers are helping address a chronic labor shortage in the nation's nursing care sector, with many of them caring for clients in their own age group.
Shigeto Hirata, 73, works in the daytime from Monday through Saturday, making home visits to people who need help with eating and going to the toilet.
"You look fine after a good night's sleep," Hirata said to a 69-year-old man when he visited his home in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture. The man, suffering from dementia, smiled from his bed, and his daughter, who lives with him, went out to do errands.