The aging of the population and a poor pension system has a new symbol in Japan: grandmothers are rented

During the last months, the great drag crisis Japan with the aging of its population has been expressed in multiple formats. For example, in the field they are becoming Schools in hotels And more and more elderly for living in jail. In fact, the situation is such that the shortage of young labor has turned retirement into an aspiration of the past, with a large group of over 70 years keeping your work life Active

The latest: the nation has begun to rent grandmothers.

Grandmother for hours. As we said, in the context of a society that ages quickly and where loneliness and isolation They have become structural phenomena, Japan has witnessed the emergence of a unique and deeply revealing service: Ok obaachanan initiative that allows rent grandmothers For hours to fulfill as varied functions as teaching to cook, take care of children, accompany a loving break or simply provide emotional support.

Behind this phenomenon, which might seem picturesque at first sight, underlies a series of economic tensions and social that clearly draw the fragility of the social contract in the Third Japanese age. With More than 9.3 million of people over 65 years old still active (That is, one in four elders continues to work after retirement age), many are forced to seek new forms of income against pensions that are barely enough to meet basic needs. For these older women, OK Obaachan represents not only an economic way, but also a form of Keep feeling usefulpresent and linked to society.

A human catalog. The service, offered by the Client Partners companyis presented as a multifunctional female personnel (a kind of task and company company) and offers grandmothers to a cost of 3,300 yen per hour (More transport). The current template includes about 100 women between 60 and 94 yearswith diverse profiles and skills that cover From the kitchen, calligraphic writing or family mediation, to the simple ability to listen, advise or do affective presence.

What began as a practical project has become an experience deeply human: Some grandmothers accompany people who want to leave the closet in front of their parents, others participate in academic research on social evolution in Japan, and there are those who simply help cope with everyday life.

Grandmothers of all colors. He Customer profile It is as wide as that of the grandmothers themselves: young people without family, lonely adults, people looking for a maternal figure, or even couples in the process of rupture that require a conciliatory presence. The range of services covers from functional to emotional, and in many cases the symbolic.

Social reactions. What’s doubt, the appearance of the service has generated reactions found In Japanese society. While some value the possibility of receiving advice and affection from an experienced person, others express discomfort Before commercialization of human ties. In fact, they have appeared comments on networks social ranging from praise to the idea of ​​”feeling needy” to irony about the physical risk for the elderly or even the complaint about the lack of an equivalent service for men.

Because, in effect, ok obaachan is exclusively feminineboth in its template and in its parallel services of “rental friends” or “rental relatives”, all managed by a company that It is defined as “Manitas company only for women.” They counted the media premises that, although there is a male version called Ossan Rental (Centered on middle -aged men, between 30 or 40 years), its approach is different and more informal, and does not reach the level of visibility or sophistication of the service focused on grandmothers.

Grandmothers as a symptom. The proliferation of this type of services cannot be analyzed without attending the demographic backdrop that makes them possible. We have gone counting: Japan is one of the countries more aged of the world, with an inverted population pyramid, rates of minimal birth rate and a longevity that exceeds 85 years on average.

Traditional family structures are They have eroded: Unipersonal households They multiplyintergenerational links They weakenand community fabric It is fragmented. In this scenario, older people not only face economic uncertainty, but also an existential vacuum. Initiatives like OK Obaachan They workas well as a kind of emotional economy, in which rent affection (either On the contrary), listening and the human heat that was previously given in the family. Far from being a marginal curiosity, the phenomenon embodies an adaptive response (and, of course, commercial) to a deeply structural need.

Radiography of the present. If you want, although the boom Ok obaachan Point to the endearing, functional or even ingenious, deep down it is a sign of cultural transformation. The figure of the grandmother, traditionally associated with the home, the transmission of values ​​or the emotional refuge, has become a professionalized resourcenegotiable and temporal.

What was previously free and spontaneous is now organized, is invoiced and reserved for hours. A RARE Av of professionalization of tenderness that speaks both of the spirit of resilience of older women and the void left by a Hyperravalized societywhere every need (even affective) must be covered For a transaction.

Japan, as in so many Other trendsit is possible that anticipating a phenomenon that could be reproduced in other industrialized societies. In an increasingly individualistic world and agedperhaps the question is not why there is a grandmothers service for rent, but why the hell we need so much.

Image | Miki YoshihitoClient Partners

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