The Japanese government on Friday approved a new three-year plan to support people in their 40s to 50s who fell victim to Japan’s “employment ice age” following the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s.
The plan through fiscal 2028, approved in a meeting of cabinet ministers, is aimed at ensuring sufficient retirement funds and access to housing.
It includes measures to offer subsidies to firms to help the cohort work while they care for elderly parents and pledges to provide safety-net public housing operated in a way that prevents aging people from being denied a home.
It also pledges to make it easier for individuals working fewer hours to enroll in employee pension schemes, which are more financially robust than the basic pension.
In Japan, many who entered the workforce during the prolonged economic stagnation following the collapse of the asset bubble in the 1990s continue to struggle with lower living standards. Some are said to have become social recluses.
In 2025, some 330,000 people in the group were in involuntary non-regular work, while around 460,000 were believed to be unemployed.
The Japanese government describes issues around the employment ice age as a “challenge to be addressed by all of society that concerns the country’s future.” Concentrated support for the group began in 2019.
© KYODO
