Meet the man who worked till 101 years of age.
"I think I am doing a good job for 104.
I still walk by myself, and I enjoy eating a lot every day!"
August 29, 2016 4:00 pm JST
Meet the man who worked till 101
AYAKO HIRONO, Nikkei deputy editor
Fukutaro Fukui, 104, made a one-hour commute daily into central Tokyo until he retired at the age of 101. (Photo by Kazutoshi Murata)
TOKYO -- Japan is world famous for its long working hours and long working lives. But Fukutaro Fukui still makes most of his countrymen look like shirkers. At the age of 70, when most of his compatriots have already enjoyed several years of retirement, the former securities house executive began a new career as a clerk at a lottery sales broker, Tokyo Takara Shokai.
The job lasted 31 years, with Fukui making a one-hour commute daily into central Tokyo until he retired at the age of 101, becoming one of Japan's oldest known "salarymen," as office workers are sometimes called here.
Now three years into retirement at the age of 104, Fukui said he was motivated mainly by a belief that the desire to work is a deep-seated human instinct and money should not be a primary motive. "It does not matter what we achieved or if we were promoted. I have worked just because it is my instinct." His three-decade last job was not a particularly exciting one, at least by the standards of his previous roles in finance and mergers and acquisitions: it involved mainly counting money and lottery tickets.
But he enjoyed it: "I sometimes climbed the stairs by myself to the office, carrying a suitcase with tens of thousands of lottery tickets and even walked faster than younger colleagues," he recalled at the retirement home where he lives in the city of Chigasaki, on the outskirts of Tokyo.
In Fukui's case, loyalty to a former university classmate, his best friend Tamazo Mochizuki, was a key factor. The two met while studying economics at Tokyo's Keio University and both originally dreamt of becoming economic researchers. However, World War II prevented Fukui's dreams from coming true. He was conscripted and sent to Manchuria for military service.
After the war, "I gave up on my dream, because there were too many brilliant doctorate candidates when we returned from military service. Mochizuki-san and I were too far behind," Fukui said. He joined a small securities house founded by his best friend, Mochizuki Securities (later renamed Kankaku Securities), after running a fur import store.
He did once decide to quit his job at age 96, telling Mochizuki's widow he planned to step down. A few days later, the widow pleaded with Fukui's daughter: "Please tell him not to leave us. We would like [him] to stay with us as long as possible." Fukui gave up his retirement plan and resumed his daily commute. He kept on working even after his wife died in 2009. His daughter-in-law, the wife of his eldest son, used to drive him to the station and pick him up after work each day until Fukui finally officially retired.
He wrote a book about his life, titled "Age 100: The Person Needed Forever," which was published in Japan. It was subsequently translated and sold in Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan.
His extraordinary career may be about to become much more common in Japan. Increasing numbers of elderly people are opting to return to work after their initial retirement. According to a study published in 2015 by the labor ministry, 82% of Japanese companies have re-employed staff who have retired. The number of workers over age 65 has reached 6.81 million.
"I only worked for Mochizuki-san. It was he who made me such an attractive job offer. I really wanted to support him," Fukui said. At the securities house, Fukui sometimes contributed to the investors' newspaper. Having experienced mergers and acquisitions as an executive there during Japan's bubble years, he then moved to Tokyo Takara Shokai, a related company of what was then still called Kankaku Securities, as an adviser.
How is he coping with life after work?
Fukui smiles and says, "I think I am doing a good job for 104.
I still walk by myself, and I enjoy eating a lot every day!"
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Posted by: Murli dhar Gupta <mdguptabpl@gmail.com>
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