It offered a variety of incentives for corporations to raise the mandatory retirement age from 55 to 60. This was in part to bring the retirement age into line with the starting age pension payments. Today in these companies, the employees are given this early retirement option from a relatively early age. Generally, the lager the corporation, the earlier they offer the option of retirement. This has meant that while corporations have extended their mandatory retirement age to 60 as a system, they have given themselves as many opportunities as they require to shed older workers in order to cut costs.
Some employees take advantage of the opportunity of early retirement to find other jobs.
Others use the opportunity to set up their own businesses. Some are extremely successful and happy while others are less so. Whatever options they take, virtually all retirees agree that the experiences gained from serving only one company for a long time did not prepare them well to be independent business people. Many required a long period to become accustomed to the new challenges and opportunities. Although in the long run, Japanese corporations may suffer from a shortage of labor, in the short term, the growing number of middle-aged and older workers will experience difficulties in finding employment after mandatory retirement age.