Japan shows us what ‘Not Done Yet’ really means.

What if loneliness and aging weren’t problems to solve, but resources waiting to be connected?

Japan found an answer. Tokyo-based ‘Client Partners’ started by noticing older handymen were in high demand for repairs. Then they saw something deeper: a hunger for the human skills, warmth, and presence that older women bring to everyday life.

They created OK Obaachan – “OK Grandma” – and it’s changing lives on both sides of every door.

Women over 60 can now earn meaningful income and renewed purpose doing what they’ve spent decades mastering. They teach cooking and help with housework, yes. But they also mediate family disputes, attend weddings when clients lack family, help young people come out to their parents, and even handle difficult breakups. “I get to go out and have these experiences,” says 69-year-old Taeko Kaji. “It was the right decision for me.”

For clients aged 20 to 70 in Japan’s increasingly lonely cities, it’s practical help wrapped in emotional support. CEO Ruri Kanazawa explains: “Some people may be abused, and some people may never have had a mother in the first place. Our grandmother staff members help provide the motherly warmth they need.”

Client Partners’ philosophy is clear: “The experience and abilities of older people are of great use to society.” They mean it. These women earn ¥3,300 ($23) per hour – professional wages because their decades of wisdom deserve professional respect. You do not lose value with age.

Japan’s Labor Force Survey shows women’s regular employment peaks between 25 and 34, then drops. This is age apartheid in action – society systematically writing off women after they’ve accumulated their most valuable expertise.

Client Partners looked at this discrimination and said no. “There are many people who want to contribute to society even as they get older.” Now about 100 women aged 60 to 94 are proving that truth daily.

This isn’t just job creation. It’s dismantling ageism by making expertise visible and valued. It’s sageing, not ageing – wisdom in active service, not decline into irrelevance.

Client Partners offers this insight: “The merit of age is the ability to remain unfazed by small things.” That steadiness earned through decades of living is exactly what people need for life’s hardest moments.

This model should spread everywhere because it does more than help individuals. It creates proof that the narrative about “aging out” of usefulness is a lie we can stop believing. These women aren’t in some sad epilogue. They’re in their next act – meaningful, paid, and deeply needed. They’re not done yet.

The question isn’t whether you still have value.

The question is: who needs what only you can offer?

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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This is also important – Who Decided 65 Was the Magic Number for Retirement?

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