TOKYO — Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will launch a number of new projects beginning next fiscal year aimed at helping elderly people to work, as part of efforts to realize Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's centerpiece policy of a society in which all 100 million-plus citizens are dynamically engaged.
A subsidy will be created to promote entrepreneurial efforts by people aged 60 and over, called the "subsidy to support active work throughout life in entrepreneurship."
Aimed at salaried workers, it is intended to increase opportunities for people to apply their abundant experience to some kind of work even after retirement.
The subsidy will cover two-thirds — a maximum of 2 million yen (about $17,000) — of expenses related to the creation of employment, including placing recruitment ads in magazines and elsewhere and costs related to new employees obtaining qualifications.
Hiring two people aged 60 or over, or three people aged 40 or over, will be a requirement for receiving the subsidy. The ministry has allocated 870 million yen for the project in the draft budget for fiscal 2016.
To make it easier for elderly people to find places to work, the ministry will also establish a human resource database in the Industrial Employment Stabilization Center of Japan, a public interest incorporated foundation.
The system will allow people who are scheduled to retire to register such information as their qualifications, abilities, and the fields they want to work in. Companies interested in hiring elderly people will be able to choose from a list of potential employees and hire them through interviews and other procedures.
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The plan envisions such projects as people with teaching experience instructing children in areas where there are no cram schools, and elderly people serving as guides for foreigners at sightseeing spots. It is scheduled to be implemented at 150 locations nationwide.
