IS THIS A CREATIVE RETIREMENT PLAN, OR WHAT?

IS THIS A CREATIVE RETIREMENT PLAN, OR WHAT?

The Japanese have always been a very adaptable and resilient society. From the ashes of the second World War they rose to develop one of the most affluent economies in the world. Their ingenuity continues today, only in a more non traditional fashion. The Japanese have been resorting to a new method to deal with poverty and personal isolation and loneliness. Senior citizens have taken up petty crime in order to be sentenced to prison time, where there basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing are being provided by the state.

Petty crimes for Japanese over 65 years of age have risen from about 2% to 20% over the past twenty-five years. A regular occurrence is for a pensioner to steal some food item usually under $20 and ultimately be sentenced to one or two years in prison. Prison life involves receiving three meals a day, a regular change of clothes and the opportunity to participate in numerous activities with other seniors. While in jail they still continue to collect their pension, so that when they are released they have accumulated a savings account without really trying. 

One interviewed pensioner indicated that he purposely stole a bike off the street and rode it to the police station and turned himself in. He was sentenced to a year in prison with all of its basic benefits. Upon his release, he quickly returned home, threatened a couple of women by showing them a knife, and subsequently served another four years of an eight year sentence. The culprit claimed he had no intention of using the knife in any way, but just wanted to return to prison for a longer time. 

This creative approach to senior citizen care, paid for by the state, seems to be catching on in a big way. More and more elderly are committing minor offences in order to be incarcerated. This creative new endeavour is causing the government more problems than they were prepared for. The cost of jailing one offender in Japan is over $50,000 for a year - a very costly venture for some minor thefts under $20.

But again, the Japanese are beginning to think more creatively than most countries to try to remedy both problems - the high cost of incarceration and the poverty of many. The government has actually costed a model to build an industrial complex retirement village where people would forfeit half their pension but get free food, free board and healthcare and so on, and get to play karaoke or gate-ball with the other residents and have a relative amount of freedom. It would cost far less than what the government is spending at the moment on jailing the poor and lonely.

It will take time for the new program to be implemented, but it does continue to show that the Japanese are very inventive in dealing with some serious problems.