Thats not a gundam, thats grandma.
That's not a gundam, that's grandma. Tupungato / Shutterstock.com

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating post about Japan's growing “silver market.” This market is about keeping old people out of retirement and in jobs for as long as possible. The reason for this is because one in every four Japanese is above the age of 65, and it is expected that by 2050, which is right around the corner, it will be one in every three. What this means is that the country will not be able to support all of these old and unproductive people.

There are lots of things to do in Japan; it has positions to fill, things to move, fields to pick. The economy can't be based on a group that does nothing between age 65 and death—which on average happens for women at 85 and for men at 81. This is why Abenomics is working only outside of the country, and not where it is much needed (within it). Japan is just getting too old. It slipped into a recession again.

The easy solution to this problem is: "a sharp influx of immigrants" from poorer countries. But this is not an option for Japan because it is "one of the world’s most homogeneous cultures," and apparently wants to stay that way no matter what. So, Japan is turning to the hard solution: increasing the number of robots and keeping the elderly in the job market. For the old folks who are healthy, this is a cinch. There are plenty of jobs for them to fill, and employers like their kind of labor because it is cheap. WSJ:

“Compared to younger people, we can curb their pay,” says Katsutoshi Sekine, who runs a farm cooperative in Chiba Prefecture and offers his nearly 20 senior fruit and vegetable pickers 80% of the going wage.

As for those who are not in great health, they can be transformed into cyborgs. There are technology corporations that have developed exoskeletons (some are even called HAL) and "smart suits" to help elderly people do hard work on farms (bend over) and even construction sites (lift things).

The writing in WSJ's post indicates no amazement at these unexpected 21st-century, post-cyberpunk developments. Indeed, it optimistically points out that Japan might be a pioneer in the future of labor in advanced capitalist societies, all of which are demographically heading in the direction of Japan. They, too, do not want to solve one of capitalism's big obstacles (lack of population growth) in the obvious manner—with immigrants. And so Japan is positioning itself to become a major exporter of silver labor technologies (or "smart aging") to the rest of the xenophobic overdeveloped world. The analysts think that the country could make billions upon billions in this new market.

None of this was predicted in the novels of William Gibson.