National Oct 26, 2019
The survey on elderly employment, released Friday, also showed that 61 percent of companies are able to offer part-time positions to such workers.
Business Jan 29, 2018
Japan's rural regions turn to 'sharing economy' to offer residents valuable services
Business practices collectively known as the "sharing economy" are offering new ways for local and prefectural governments to address problems such as aging populations and scarce job opportunities. The sharing economy involves arrangements in which individuals can pay to borrow or rent underused assets owned ...
Business / Economy Feb 27, 2017
Some 15 percent of municipal governments across Japan saw an improvement in economic conditions in their regions in the last year, slightly exceeding those seeing a deterioration, according to a recent survey by Kyodo News. The survey suggests that a limited number of municipalities have ...
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Jun 25, 2016
A confused, senile future awaits Japan
by Michael Hoffman
Confucius said: "When your parents are alive, serve them according to ritual. When they die, bury them according to ritual, make sacrifices to them according to ritual." Ayako Sono said: "Old people are growing more and more selfish. Human beings have an obligation to die ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Jun 11, 2016
No guarantees: the struggle of being old and alone in Japan
by Philip Brasor
Foreign media have been diligently covering Japan's rocky economic road to an uncertain future, but they seem to have missed the recent bankruptcy of Nihon Life Kyokai, a company that provides guarantor services. Though it's only one failure, the Japanese press has paid particularly ...
Film Jun 10, 2015
Surviving flamboyantly in a super-aged society
by Kaori Shoji
The older you get, the more you need to live in the city. Simone de Beauvoir once said that to her biographer, and it's probably true. As an iconic presence on the streets of Paris until her death in 1986, de Beauvoir showed that ...
National / Social Issues May 16, 2015
by Eric Johnston
The projected drop in the country's population raises some fundamental questions about its political and social future.
Film Apr 29, 2015
Is there life after death for Japan's aging women?
by Mark Schilling
When Katsumi Sakaguchi quit working as a documentary filmmaker in the spring 2008 to look after his mother Suchie, he thought he was doing the right thing. Then 78, Suchie was suffering from what Sakaguchi describes as "mental confusion" following the death of her ...
Commentary / Japan | SENTAKU MAGAZINE Mar 19, 2015
Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party express alarm that the party's local chapters are showing signs of collapse because of Japan's aging population and the government's proposed agricultural reforms.
Editorials Feb 5, 2015
The government, which recently adopted a new strategy for measures against dementia, needs to follow through on the idea of ensuring a better quality of life for patients by heeding the wishes of sufferers and their families.
Business Nov 23, 2014
Foreign workers in demand amid tourism surge
by Junji Yamaguchi
Demand for foreign workers has been strong in Japan over the past few years as the number of foreign tourists rises and an increasing number of domestic companies aim to expand their business abroad. Since its establishment in 2004, Globalpower Inc., a Tokyo-based staffing agency ...
Commentary / World Sep 26, 2014
In praise of what looks like China's new norm
by Yao Yang
Based on the rising share of labor's national income, the decline in global demand, the aging population, rapid urbanization and education dividends from younger workers, China's annual growth rate over the next decade is forcecast to average 7.3 percent — which would still be ...