Planners look to old-timers to rejuvenate aging society
[3 January 2004 - IHT/Asahi - Japan] In 2007, a tsunami of retired baby boomers will crash into Japan's demographic landscape. What's a nation with an ultra-low birthrate to do with the flood of retirees? Put its old-timers back to work. Bureaucrats in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare plan to expand the range of jobs that can be filled by government-subsidized agencies specialized in placing elder workers. Currently, the subsidized centers can fill jobs only in such areas as gardening, carpentry, cleaning and simple manual labor. Under the proposed guidelines, the centers would be allowed to dispatch workers for skilled tasks including assembly-line work, accounting and research. ...