Photo: Chang W. Lee.
“If I die in my workshop, I will be happy,” says Seiichi Ishii, one the centenarians in Japan who are still working. Ishii has been repairing bicycles since he was 12 and doesn’t want to stop.
Where I live now, there are several centenarians. They may still do things like give a presentation on their travels or work out in an exercise class. But most of them are bowed down with infirmity. No one is still working in their old career. Japan seems different. Hikari Hida at the New York Times interviewed five centenarians there who are still working.
“Japan has about 100,000 people who have lived for a century or more,” she writes, “the most in the world, and more per capita than in any other country. … We met five remarkable centenarians who credited their longevity to eating well, Japan’s affordable health care, exercise and family support. But for these five, there is also something else: their work.
Seiichi Ishii
“As a 12-year-old, Seiichi Ishii was walking home from school one day when he came across a ‘help wanted’ sign in the window of a bicycle repair shop in the Shitamachi district of Tokyo. He had always admired the long navy jumpsuits that bike repairmen wore, and he wanted to step into one himself.
“More than 90 years after that start, Mr. Ishii is still fixing bikes at his own shop. Though the legs of the jumpsuit are too long for his shrinking body, he goes to bed every night excited about the customers who might show up the next day. …
“Mr. Ishii, 103 … remembers living through the war, when nothing was guaranteed. His income from the repairs supplements a monthly pension of 50,000 yen, or about $330. ‘You never know what will happen,’ he said. …
Fuku Amakawa
“Five or six days a week, Fuku Amakawa works the lunch shift at her family’s ramen restaurant alongside her son and daughter, using long chopsticks to swirl egg noodles in pork broth and sprinkling chopped spring onions into bowls filled with hot soup.
“ ‘I can’t believe I’ve managed to work this long without getting bored,’ she said.
“Ms. Amakawa, 102, says she has always been a bit stubborn. She put off her arranged marriage as long as she could. But after she made the leap, she opened the restaurant with her husband. Its 60th anniversary was this year.
“ ‘It is really beautiful that I can still work. Physically and emotionally, it changes the quality of my life,’ she said. …
Masafumi Matsuo
“Bright yellow rapeseed flowers, Masafumi Matsuo’s favorite, filled the fields behind his home when he was young. He loved the mild bitterness of the vegetable, which turns sweet when cooked, and which he farmed and sold. …
“Mr. Matsuo, 101, also grows eggplants, cucumbers and beans across different seasons. ‘I work to stay healthy,’ he said on a July morning, dragging a plastic stool out into the field, where he sipped water during breaks from watering his rice seedlings.
“Mr. Matsuo was born, grew up and raised three children in his town, which is nestled in the mountains of Oita, a coastal prefecture on the southwestern island of Kyushu. … [He] survived esophageal cancer and, at 99, a bout of Covid, spends his weekends playing with his year-old great-grandson, Toki. …
Tomoko Horino
“Tomoko Horino always knew there was more in store for her than staying home. Inspired by a saleswoman she had met, she wanted to sell makeup. But she was a young mother of three, and cultural norms meant it would not be considered proper for her to work.
“At 39, she ran into an old friend whose husband was recruiting saleswomen for the same makeup brand she’d fallen in love with years before. With her children older, she took the job. Ms. Horino loved seeing her customers’ faces light up as they tried a new lipstick color or foundation that she’d suggested. …
“Her husband, who worked in an office, wasn’t happy to have a wife who also worked, but the family was in a dire financial situation. All he asked was that she knock on doors where she wouldn’t be recognized. … Now widowed and living alone at 102, she makes her sales over the phone, with only occasional home visits. Keeping busy helps her fend off loneliness. …
“ ‘I love making people feel beautiful,’ Ms. Horino said.” …
Tomeyo Ono
“When Tomeyo Ono plopped onto a cushion to begin her performance, there was total silence. Then, from somewhere deep in her petite body, she started to recite the folk tale of a bull and a baby bear, with perfect enunciation.
“As she spoke, she gestured wildly with her hands, the audience hanging on every word. At the end, the room filled with applause. With a repertoire of 50 stories, Ms. Ono is a teller of minwa, or folk tales, a career she took up for fun after turning 70. …
“Now 101, she is the oldest, and loudest, member of a storytelling collective. After the 2011 tsunami washed away her home in Fukushima, she vowed to incorporate the experiences of its survivors into her work.
“ ‘I’m living to tell my stories,’ Ms. Ono said, tears rolling down her cheeks. She said she was terrified by the idea of folk tales, or memories of the tsunami, being lost.”
More at the Times, here. Outstanding video clips and photos.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Hannah writes from Philadelphia, “One of my good friends is 101. Her birthday is in July. She still works as a travel agent, which she has done for many years. She used to have stores all over the city, but now just works out of her second bedroom, from which she maintains an active client list. She can drink me under the table. She walks faster than I do (or than I did before the broken pelvis). She is charming, though her mind isn’t as clear as it once was. This has created some difficulties in her work, though it seems to work out in the end.”