Taishokkin

He was a friendly fellow and we got on to the topic of retirement. It seems to crop up in all kinds of places now that I am heading towards 40. My friends and I are no longer afraid to talk about exciting things such as pensions.

The driver is 58 years old and he's facing mandatory retirement in two years. After 18 years of service at the company, he will get a taishokkin of 3 million yen. After that he can work part-time at the company for as long as he likes. Many of the drivers in Japan work until their mid-70's, but of course, the pay is much lower for a part-timer than for a full-timer. Thinking about my age and his age, I realized that he started driving a taxi when he was about the same age as I am now.

He wasn't happy about the 3 million yen sum. I didn't know what to say. I don't even know if it's normal outside Japan to receive a lump sum when you leave the company. Here, it is most defintiely normal. For my university job, I will apparently receive a month's salary for every year that I have worked there. That money is taxed at a lower rate than regular salary, so it works out much better than the one twelfth wage increase that it implies. Just the other day, I discovered that I receive that money even if I don't stay around until the mandatory retirement age. It certainly beats the idea of receiving a gold watch on leaving.

What is fair? Why should a company be paying you a lump sum when you're leaving? Don't they pay you your salary for all those years - it seems a little tough on them to have to pay you a large lump sum just when you are leaving.

Interesting fact: statistically, people who work for other people earn more per hour than people who run their own companies. Even anomalies like Bill Gates don't manage to overturn this.