Photo/Illutration Haruhiko Aoyama, the plaintiff in a lawsuit over wages for rehired workers after retirement, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on July 20. (Takashi Endo)

Nobushige Ajigawa, the protagonist of the novel “Saikoyo Keisatsukan” (Rehired police officer) by Yu Anekoji that has been made into a TV drama series, is an Osaka prefectural police officer who was rehired by the force after reaching mandatory retirement age.

He works through the weekend and would willingly pay his own way to investigate cases that require him to travel outside his home prefecture. But his salary is only around 60 percent of what he got before retirement.

It makes me think of the employment situation surrounding workers of his generation.

Before his retirement, Ajigawa dared not stand up to his superiors and jeopardize his chances of promotion and pay raises. But now, he is perfectly comfortable about confronting his superiors who are younger than himself, telling them to their faces, “I may be rehired, but I am every bit a police officer as you are.”

Having been freed from all workplace constraints, Ajigawa says, “Now may be the golden era of my life.” However, I never really felt like congratulating him fully, and I couldn’t quite tell why.

But I think I finally found my answer on July 20.

Ruling in a case concerning the remuneration of post-retirement workers who were rehired, the Supreme Court noted that the gap between that amount and the basic salary of “seishain” full-time employees may be deemed unreasonable, depending on “various factors that determine the basic salary.”

Those “factors” point to the employee’s ability, performance results and years of continued service, and they obviously do not include their superior’s subjective appraisal of the employee and other elements of “office politics."

Applied to Ajigawa’s case, it is nothing short of ironic that his post-retirement salary was cut by as much as 40 percent, but his emotional freedom vastly enhanced his performance.

Would someone in his position like to take on work that is less burdensome than when they worked before retirement? Or would they rather work just like they used to in their younger age, so they achieve a sense of fulfillment?

Either way, their post-retirement re-employment is conditional on a sizable cut in salary, which I think really stinks.

Working without constraints, Ajigawa’s mind is sharper than ever before, enabling him to solve complex cases one after another.

“It’s truly great to be on active duty,” he says.

I want to tell him, “You should ask to be paid the same salary as everyone else (who has yet to retire and be rehired).”

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 22

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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