双语阅读｜一线希望：日本老龄化人人口和劳动力
LIKE many firms in Aichi prefecture, Japan’s manufacturing heartland, Nishijimax, a maker of machine tools for the car industry, is struggling to find workers. Its solution in a country with a drum-tight labour market is one that is increasingly common in Japan: raising the age of retirement. More than 30 of the company’s 140 employees are over 60; the oldest is 82. Putting qualified people out to pasture early is a waste, says Hiroshi Nishijima, a manager; “If they want to work, they should.”
与众多在日本制造业中心爱知县的企业一样，为汽车产业生产机床的西岛公司正在想方设法招聘工人。在日本劳动力市场逐渐吃紧的情况下，解决问题的办法越来越大同小异:推迟退休年龄。在这家公司的140名职员中，有30多人年过60岁；最大的是82岁。经理西岛浩（Hiroshi Nishijima）说道：“让高素质人才过早退休是一种浪费；如果他们想工作的话，就应该工作。”
Since peaking at over 67m in the late 1990s, Japan’s workforce has shrunk by about 2m. The government says it could collapse to 42m by mid-century as the population ages and shrinks. The number of foreigners inched up in 2015 to a record high of 2.2m, but that is far from enough to fill the labour gap. Instead of opening its doors wider to immigrants, Japan is trying to make more use of its own people who are capable of working.
日本劳动力自从20世纪90年代末达到6700万的顶峰之后，已减少了近200万。日本政府称，随着人口老龄化以及减少，到本世纪中叶，日本劳动力将猛降至4200万。2015年，外来人口数量增加至220万，打破历史记录。然而，这仍然无法填补劳动力空缺。日本正努力利用本国有工作能力的人，而不是放松移民政策。
Large companies in Japan mostly set a mandatory retirement age of 60—mainly as a way of reducing payroll costs in a system that rewards seniority. But other businesses are less stringent. About 12.6m Japanese aged 60 or older now opt to keep working, up from 8.7m in 2000. Two-thirds of Japan’s over-65s say they want to stay gainfully employed, according to a government survey. The age of actual retirement for men in Japan is now close to 70, says the OECD, a rich-country think-tank. In most countries people typically stop working before the age at which they qualify for a state pension. Japan, where the state pension kicks in at 61 (it is due to rise to 65 by 2025), is a rare exception.
日本大企业大多强制规定60岁必须要退休，主要是为了减少支付给年长员工的工资开销。不过，其他一些企业没有这么严格行事。现在大约有1260万60岁及以上的日本老人选择继续工作，而在2000年则有870万人。官方调查显示，在65岁以上的的日本人中，有2/3的人想要继续工作。经合组织表示，日本男性的实际退休年龄现在接近70岁。在大多数国家，人们通常会在领取国家养老金的年龄之前就不工作。在日本，61岁就能领取养老金(到2025年会提高至65岁)，这个很罕见。
The greying of Japan’s workforce is clearly visible. Elderly people are increasingly seen driving taxis, serving in supermarkets and even guarding banks. Bosses are getting older, too. Mikio Sasaki, a senior adviser at Mitsubishi Corporation, a trading company, is 79. Masamoto Yashiro, the chairman and CEO of Shinsei Bank, is 87. Tsuneo Watanabe, editor-in-chief of the world’s biggest-circulation newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, is a sprightly 90.
日本劳动力老龄化是显而易见。越来越多的老人开出租车，在超市上班，甚至在银行当保安。企业负责人也变得越来越老。贸易企业三菱的董事长佐佐木79岁。新生银行的董事长兼首席执行官八城政基87岁。世界发行量最大的报纸《读卖新闻》的主编渡边恒雄是一位乐观的90岁老人。
It is inevitable that people will stay in the workforce longer, says Ken Ogata, the president of Koreisha, an agency that provides temporary jobs exclusively to people over 60. He notes that the country has little appetite for importing workers, so it will have to make more use of pensioners, women and robots. Many of those who find work through Koreisha were once employees of Tokyo Gas, Japan’s largest supplier of natural gas to homes. They do the same kind of work now—reading meters and explaining the use of appliances to homeowners. “They have so much experience and knowledge that can be put to good use,” says Mr Ogata.
高龄人才董事长绪形拳（Ken Ogata）称，人们的工作时间会越来越长，是不可避免的。高龄人才是一家专门为60岁以上的人提供临时工作的机构。他指出，日本对外国劳工几乎不感兴趣，因此，它将不得不更多地使用养老金领取者，妇女和机器人。许多通过Koreisha找到工作的人曾经是日本最大的民用天燃气供应商东京燃气公司的员工。他们的工作都是末产的：抄表，向户主们解释电器的使用方法。“他们有的知识和经验丰富，能发挥用处。”绪形拳说道。
They can also be cheaper. Companies often hire back retirees on non-permanent contracts offering poorer terms than their previous ones. Takashimaya, a department-store chain, has introduced a performance-based system for such employees aged 60-65 (at no extra cost to the company, it says).
他们也更为廉价。企业经常返聘退休员工，签订短期合同，条款比不上之前的。百货连锁店高岛屋为60 - 65岁员工制订了一种员工绩效制度(它表示企业不需要付出额外成本)。
Japan’s labour crunch has created a chronic shortage of nursing care for elderly people who are no longer fit enough to work. McKinsey, a consultancy, says Japan should encourage able-bodied elderly people to help. If 10% of them were to take up such work, the country would have an additional 700,000 carers by 2025, it reckons. One way of encouraging this would be to give priority to those who have worked as carers when allocating places in nursing homes, says McKinsey. It does not help, however, that the state pension system discourages some elderly people from working by cutting their benefits if they earn more than a certain amount.
日本劳动力危机造成对不能工作的老年人的照料工作长期人手不足。咨询机构麦肯锡称，日本应该鼓励健全的老年人提供帮助。据估计，如果10%的人开始从事这一类工作，到2025年，日本会新增70万护理人员。麦肯锡表示，可以推动这项计划的一个方法就是当分配疗养院位置时，优先考虑那些之前从事过疗养院护理员的人。然而，这种方法起不了作用。国家养老金体系会因为老人收入超过一定数量而削减老人的福利，这挫伤了一些老年人工作的积极性。
At Nishijimax, managers clearly want elderly workers to stay. The company’s work routine is tailored to their needs. So, too, are the canteen’s offerings—right down to the reduced-salt miso soup.
在西岛，管理人员明显希望老员工留下来。这些公司的日常工作专门针对他们的需要。因此，食堂提供的菜也直接变成少盐的味增汤。
编译：罗楚君
审校：周少娴
来源：经济学人