Not sure if this system exists in other countries, but the center
dispatches retired senior citizens for occasional part-time jobs such as weed
removal, cleaning, gardening, administrative work, etc. at affordable
prices like $9 (weed removal) to 13 (construction) per hour to local homes and companies. I’ve asked them several times for
removing weeds and trimming trees, and always appreciate their excellent work.
Recently I heard that even a very affluent person works at one of
these centers. He has stable income from dozens of properties and doesn’t have
to earn like $10 by doing simple work.
Obviously his objective of working is not money at all. As such,
many Japanese people love to work even after retirement. By contrast, early
retirement from the 40s after working like a dog until one’s 30s is not unusual
in the West. Many people actually dream of it and do that.
Some interrupt this difference as deriving from each mythology. That
is, in the West, labor is a punishment for Adam and Eve as they ate forbidden
fruit. In Japan, labor is something even the oldest gods were doing, i.e.,
growing rice and weaving, as written in Japan’s oldest book titled Kojiki (A
Record of Ancient Matters) complied over 1,300 years ago.
In other words, the objective of work is to beatify minds in Japan.
I guess that’s why schoolchildren clean their classroom, hallway and toilets after finishing classes of the day. I was frankly puzzled that some people from other countries criticize it as “child labor" because for us it is part of the education.
Visitors to Japan are often surprised to see how clean everywhere
is. Indeed, most people never throw trash on the street. I intuitively think this might originate in the Japanese people’s mindset
valuing and practicing labor and hygiene ever since schoolchildren.
