Dealing With Companies’ “Senior Problem” In Japan   A senior problem in the past meant having a “senior moment”, where you forgot something and this lapse hinted at oncoming dementia. Today in Japan it has an entirely different meaning and refers to the demographic problems Japan is facing. Japan is aging rapidly and there is a lot of discussion about the impact that will have on the welfare, health and pension systems. What is not being discussed much as yet is what to do with all of these “young” oldies?   They are reaching 60, which is retirement age, yet they will have many decades of life ahead of them. They are healthy, active, relatively digital, have large networks and considerable experience. They all know the Government pension system will breakdown under the weight of their cohort’s numbers impacting on the cost of the system. They are not confident about having enough money to last their lifespan, so they want to keep working.   Japan’s working population of those aged 15-64 will decline from 65.77 million in 2013 to 37.95 million by 2060, that represents a 42% drop. The ratio of job offers to job seekers in November 2017 hit 1.56, the highest since 1974. Here we have the issue, there are not enough younger workers available to match the corporate demand. Yet at the same time, the population itself is getting older. Bringing in foreigners to make up the difference isn’t an option as yet. The Abe Cabinet has made it clear their stance is they will never adopt an immigration policy to make up for the labor shortage.   At the lower skill levels, the so called trainee system is a disguised immigration activity bringing in cheap workers from Asia to do factory level work. They can be easily repatriated however, so the system has considerable flexibility, even as it is being attacked for the exploitation of some trainee workers taking place.   The Labor Standards Inspection Office in 2016 found 70.6% of workplaces hiring foreign trainees were violating Japan’s labor laws. The Government make tweek the system to iron out some of the worst aspects, but it will always be a temporary approach. These trainees will have to go home at some point. I doubt they will ever be allowed to settle here permanently. Japan values it social harmony very highly and having to tolerate a bunch of foreigners with different languages, ethics, morals, social values and ideas isn’t attractive at all.   What about at the higher end of the skill set scale? This is the issue facing companies. How to keep employed those who would normally be retiring. The current system is that your salary drops to half once you get to 60 and still keep working. That is a simple fixed costs adjustment strategy on the part of companies that will work for the moment. That thinking may change though once the bite of not enough skilled staff is felt more powerfully.   Japan is planning to get around the immigration option with technology. Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, on-line services, automation are the preferred way forward. We see it starting now with places like the retail banks. Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank has seen the number of visitors to its branches drop by 40% over the last ten years and so 6000 positions or 15% of the workforce are being eliminated over the next 5 years. In my own case, I probably get to a bank branch once every two years at the absolute maximum. Overall the number of retail customers using the bank’s services via mobile devices or PCs has increased more than 40% over the last five years. We have moved our service consumption on-line.   Those older workers with skill sets the companies want to keep are being required to move into new fields. Bankers, for example, who were used to commanding teams and being the big boss of their sections are being asked to go on to commission sales arrangements, where they are paid according to their productivity. They are still young at 60 and can work for another 10-15 years if they can make the