일본 고령자고용 관련 법제 및 정책의 쟁점과 과제

Abstract

This paper examines the issues and challenges related to the employment of the elderly by focusing on the main contents of Japan’s Act on the Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons. Since the 1970s, Japanese society has been experiencing aging; as a result, the country has been passing laws and policies for the employment of the elderly. This process, as well as its results, have great implications for our society, which will continue to face an aging of its population for years to come. Japan experienced aging before South Korea and started discussing the continuous employment of the elderly already in the 1980s. These discussions included the introduction of a retirement age of fifty-five and then sixty, as well as the revision of related laws. Although the Act on the Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons has been amended several times, the provision for the legal mandatory retirement age in Japan was not amended to prohibit retirement below sixty. This induced companies to extend employment up to the age of sixty-five by preparing measures to secure work for the elderly. Furthermore, following an amendment in the law in 2020, from April 2021, in addition to the existing mandatory requirements to secure elderly people’s employment until the age of sixty-five, there is also an obligation to make efforts to guarantee work until the age of seventy. Therefore, this paper investigates the direction of policies related to the employment of the elderly in Japan. It discusses the issues and challenges related to this phenomenon, which are (1) the need to reexamine the wage system, (2) the need to rethink working conditions, (3) the importance of applying the principle of equal pay for equal work, and (4) the need to implement a gradual extension of employment. Regarding Japan’s system of work for the elderly, one problem is the lack of compatibility between employment stability and working conditions. However, the country’s policies aim to create a labor market where motivated elderly persons can work for long periods of time provided their health and fitness levels allow them to do so. The system, therefore, is improving. Japan has also introduced incremental legal requirements, such as the obligation to make efforts toward a retirement age of sixty, the mandatory retirement age of sixty, and the obligation to make efforts to secure employment until the age of seventy. The country has implemented this system over a long time to create a soft landing for workers and companies before imposing legal changes. Japan’s system is intended to extend work through continuous employment and increases in the retirement age. It should be noted that the reason why the process through which employers’ obligation to make efforts to extend work was changed into a mandatory extension of work for a certain period was the intention to reduce the burden on the employer, the labor market, and society. In South Korea, discussions concerning the extension of the retirement age and employment are becoming serious. There is thus a need to accurately understand the elderly’s need for work and consider the reduction of burdens on various stakeholders, as well as the soft landing of the system. Furthermore, it will be necessary to approach the design, establishment, and implementation of a system for the extension of the retirement age from a mid- to long-term perspective.