Life in my Senior Age

I had a belief I am still young, however, I am already 50 years old. My presbyopia has become serious and now I find it difficult to read a book without glasses. For a long time I had a dream that I would quit the job and start a 5-year motorcycle journey around the world at the age of 50. But, the age to receive the retirement pension had been already risen from 55 to 64 before I knew it. This is just a breach of contract by the government. The government will probably postpone the age up to 70 soon. I am afraid I won't be able to ride a motorcycle at that age.

What's our situation like in 20 years? I remember it was already 20 years ago that a person in charge with the pension told me that they would never be able to give a retirement bonus to us. Then, what about the retirement pension? The sum of the pension has been and will be lowered year by year, and so I have a fear that I will have to accept the lowest level of life, or rather, I won't be able to pay even for the rent of my apartment 20 years later.

Besides the pension, what I worry about most is the probable breakdown of Japanese economy itself in the near future. Seeing the present-day predicament by the stupid and unethical politicians and the existence of the vigorless and unintelligent younger people of this country, I am afraid the total corruption of Japanese prosperity, even if the economic stagnation of today is not an ultimatum, will come in the years when my generation of baby boomers will receive the pension. As is often said, Japan is a country only with human resources. If these human resources don't work well, it is fatal to Japan. On the other hand, the change of the world is now amazingly fast under the borderless economy system. In the same way as the economic system of other Southeast Asian countries broke down in a day, Japanese economy may rapidly come to an end.

In fact there are lots of poor countries where people have neither houses nor sufficient food. Japan cannot be the exception. The generation of my parents who survived the War have worked very hard for the restoration of the nation from the war. Their average level of education was not so high as the following generations, but they made a success in making inexpensive but high-quality products, using their wisdom and creativity even though the products are criticized for the copies of Western goods. The post-war generation, including me, mostly majored in technology and later were forced to work absolutely hard under them. My friends, who got a job at private companies, commonly had overtime work of 200 hours a month. Under the condition of 25 working days a month, they worked 8 hours in excess per day. This means that they had to commute to work, take a bath, have meals and sleep during the rest 8 hours given to them a day. The countries where sane people live cannot beat the country with these crazy people. As a result, Japan became the richest country of the world.

However, we don't have a feeling that we are living a better life, although we have already acquired only a car. Besides, my generation come to realize that we won't be able to receive sufficient pension after devoting all our life to work. If this comes true, the people of this generation, who now have lost their vigor to be against the authority, would remember their student movements in the 1960s and organize the demonstration once again to besiege the Houses of Parliament with a fighting stick in the hand. I suppose even those mighty and cruel riot policemen would not be able to outrage the soon-dying old demonstrators. Instead, these weak, old people may fall down senseless on the street one after another, and Tokyo may suffer the unexpected panic of insufficient ambulances and beds in hospitals.

I, on the other hand, have an idea that I will move to a place where I don't need much money, before this happens - to a deserted countryside in Japan or to some country where everything is inexpensive. In other words, I will be abandoned by my own town or country.

If this happens against my will, I will be able to have more free time instead. I will be able to take care of my motorcycles more often. I will learn more about languages, and so I won't suffer from disengagement from work, for unlimited time is required for learning a language. I will learn Esperanto more diligently. When I am kicked out of Japan to a foreign country, I will join an Esperanto society of the country. If I live in a foreign country, it may be difficult to have true friends in a short time, which I don't know because I have always made a short trip. But, I as an Esperantist, have lots of unknown friends who will be waiting for me in the whole world. From any place of the world I will be able to have real-time communication with Japan by a computer network. I will be able to send the messages of my experiences in the new land. I will never be alone.