the
25 founders met one another In the mid-1990s, at a series of business-networking events hosted by the government of southern Saga prefecture (5&), many companies were making
products for the elderly, the fastest-growing demographic(人口统计的) market in Japan.But
se goods were not made by the elderly
B) All the Jeeba founders were older than 60 and believed they had a special insight into the needs
of older consumers. In 1997, they launched Jeeba (the name means"old man and old woman)
to build senior-friendly bathtubs, toilets and hammock lifts to help the infirm into wheelchairs
They do not hire young People, and the oldest of their workers is 75
Cims run by senior citizens are still a rarity, in Japan and worldwide. But the elderly have
bers on their side. Thanks to the post World War II baby boom, healthier and longer-living
seniors are reaching retirement age in unprecedented numbers all over the develooed world
Rock-bottom birthrates in those same countries mean there are far fewer young workers to take
their place. The potential consequences for industrialized economies are now clear: shrinking
work forces, soaring health costs and collapsing pension systems
N As a result, many of the rich world's notions about old age are dying. While the streamlining
otects of international competition are focusing attention on the need to create and keep good
obs, thosc fears will eventually give way to worries about the growing shortage of young
workers. One unavoidable solution: putting older people back to work, whether they like it or
not. Indeed, cutting-edge European economies like those of Finland and Denmark have already
raised their retirement ages, reversing the postwar trend toward ever-carlier retirement
Ethis crosion of one of the cornerstones of the good life-relaxcd golden yearshas not gone
remarked. In the last year Bclyum, Italy and France have all been hit with massive protests
against pension reforms that would, among other things, have raised the retirement age. In
Germany, political resistance has forced the new government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to go
slow on efforts to raise the official retirement age from 65 to 67; the plan now is to increase it by
one month a year between 2008 and 203
DR Alas, the global labor market won't wait for politicians or protesters to come around. The asing
of the work force and the accompanying skills shortage are high on the list of challenges facing
the global business. Many firms are already preparing for the demographic shift. In Japan where
the number of people between 15 and 64 is expected to decline by an average of 740 000 a year
for the next decade, big-name corporations like Canon and Mitsubishi have already started
rehiring their own retirees, as the pool of young job applicants shrinks
G)As the world's most rapidly aging society, Japan is an extreme case. But the trends are the sam
all over the developed world. Personnel services like Swiss-based Adecco have introduced
demographic fitness tests"for their clients to help them judge whether they have the tools in
place to attract and productively employ qualified older workers. "Ageism in the workplace is a
danger to corporate productivity, warns Adecco, which recommends replacing sudden
allowing workers to work part time into their late 60s or
