Whatever the rules about ordinary workers, many Japanese companies allow executives to work on well past 60. Some do this by the back door, insisting that prospective chief executives have experienced a minimum number of certain positions within the company that require somebody who is 55.
The bulging ranks of sexagenarian, septuagenarian and even octogenarian bosses include All Nippon Airways chairman Yoji Ohashi, 70, Mitsubishi chairman Mikio Sasaki, 72, Canon chairman Fujio Mitarai, 74, who also heads the Japan Business Federation, and Masamoto Yashiro, 81, chairman and chief executive of Shinsei Bank.
Casio's president Kazuo Kashio, a sprightly 81, famously still runs the company with his two elderly brothers Toshio and Yukio. 'I sometimes think about retiring, but working is too enjoyable,' president Kashio says.
