When employees are in the early stage of their careers, they should receive training in company and thereby build the foundation for their future working lives. Companies should be committed to educating young employees and retaining them. Though many companies find it difficult to enable all that hope to work until 65 to do so, they should respond proactively to such a need. Firms also need to provide their employees with information on not only work but also on many other aspects of life.

Companies also feel regular employees' long working hours are a problem. While increased numbers of non-regular employees are engaged in key operations, it is important to treat employees fairly. The new modes of working, such as telecommuting, may offer a solution to a wide range of problems. In addition, quite a lot of companies have already seen the effect in the increased use of female workers. In terms of optimal placement of human resources, companies foresee an increased use of non-regular employees; however, they should not be so focused on promoting efficiency that they disregard such factors as employee satisfaction, etc.

## (Development of Young Employees)

When employees are in the early stage of their career, they should receive training in company and thereby build the foundation for their future working lives. However, companies are cautious about recruiting young people. At the same time, a number of young workers quit their jobs soon after joining a company, which creates a grave social concern because they are losing the opportunity to develop vocational skills. This is a problem not just for employees but one that also influences the future growth of companies. Therefore, companies should be committed to educating young employees and retaining them (Figure 57). In particular, Japan should make every effort to avoid the situation where the skills of baby boomers, who are fast approaching retirement at 60, are lost along with their departure from work life (Figure 58).

## (The Second Life of the Elderly: Ongoing continuous employment)

The background, behind which some companies decided to extend the retirement age beyond 61 years old, show their position to actively utilize the skills of elderly workers. However, there are many who find problems with retaining all the staff that wish to work until 65. On the other hand, some companies, whose policy it is to include all employees who want to work until 65 in the candidate list for continuous employment, are responding to the situation proactively and gradually solving the problems associated with this move. These companies seem to feel that the problem arising from including all that wish to continue working in the target group of continuous employment, was not as much of a concern as they had initially expected. Companies must address continuous employment proactively if they are to develop in a way that meets the needs of society, where declining population and aging/declining birthrate and as baby boomers approach retirement are expected to come about.

In terms of the forms of re-employment and extended employment, a number of companies answered that they hire former employees as "non-regular employees" or hire them "on a lower wage".

Additionally, most companies currently do not provide employees with information that may be useful for post-retirement life planning including continuous employment, other than on work. However, in order for business to progress and for the employees to realize their aspirations, companies should offer a wide range of information covering areas outside work.