Regarding the Aug. 31 Bloomberg article "Willing elderly workers helping to defuse pension time bomb": At 66, I'm also one of those elderly workers. While delaying retirement is helping to defuse the pension time bomb, it's adding to other problems.

Here in the United States, the unemployment rate among those under 25 is around 25 percent. In Spain it's over 50 percent. I believe I saw a recent article in The Japan Times stating that only 65 percent of recent Japanese college graduates had found jobs.

By not retiring, we "elderly" are preventing younger generations from entering the labor pool at a critical time in their lives.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

steven smith