Support for Every Individual: Employing Workers Post Retirement
We are entering an era in which people can expect to live up to 100 years and beyond. As such, the Panasonic Group is promoting measures to encourage each employee to map out their own career from an early stage, and to meet the diverse employment needs of older workers.
This page focuses on initiatives in the Japan region.
Employment programs for older workers
In 1982, we introduced the Senior Partner Program, under which employees sign employment contracts to work after retirement under new working conditions, and in 2001 we introduced the Next Stage Program, which evolved into the New Next Stage Program in 2008. In this way, we have always been working to develop and build systems that are at the forefront of society in terms of measures for older workers in Japan, based on the concept of creating independent human resources.
Most recently, we once again revamped the New Next Stage Program, and launched a new initiative for mid- to long-term personal development that includes skills and mind-set enhancement for current employees, based on the assumption that more people will continue to work into their later years.
Promotion of self-determined career development
We are promoting measures to encourage each employee to map out their own career from an early stage. To do so, we are developing and promoting training seminars on career design and life design for various stages of people’s lives across the entire company.
Securing employment opportunities for older workers
We have introduced the Next Stage Partner Program to allow employees who wish to continue working after mandatory retirement at the age of 60 to do so until the age of 65. We have been working to improve working conditions under this system in order to encourage employees to make use of the expertise, experience, and skills they have cultivated over many years, as well as to accommodate changes in the social significance of responding to the greater desire of older people to work, and to ensure financial preparedness for the period between retirement and the age at which pension can be received. In April 2021, in addition to these existing efforts, we also began an initiative that will allow employees to continue their employment even beyond the age of 65.
Post-retirement support
We are also offering financial support for employees who are willing to leave Panasonic earlier and seek employment elsewhere, as well as support for those who wish to work elsewhere after reaching retirement age.
