Suntory President Niinami's Proposed "Retirement at 45" ⇒ Conclusion: It's Up to the Individual

This man's theory is drawing a firestorm, but as someone who will turn 45 in a few years, I'll write down my "impressions."

This theory is often discussed together with the "lifetime employment has reached its limit" theory, but it reminded me of the "Japan is finished when take-home pay is 140,000 yen" tweet, and how it blew up when Horiemon replied, "No, it's you who's finished".

I belong to the "employment ice age" generation, and I have no particularly outstanding abilities, so I often struggled to change jobs. The jobs I ended up with were Plan B or C as a matter of course, and when I was young, I'm embarrassed to say, I often worked with a sulky attitude.

Here, let me look back on a few turning points in my life.

When I went to an interview at a certain company in my thirties, I was told, "Mr. Ashida, considering your age...", and I felt both how creepy it is to draw lines by age, and that if I hadn't built anything up as I got older, I'd hit a dead end in life. That one remark made it clear that staying at one company for a long time, or having know-how that doesn't work once you step outside, is no good.

In March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. I was living in Nishi-Shinjuku at the time, could get home relatively easily from my company in Roppongi, and my home's damage was limited to a toppled bookshelf, but I keenly felt how easily peaceful everyday life can be destroyed in an instant. Back then I had my share of material desires and thought I would someday live in a tower condo, but after that I gradually became a minimalist.

In August 2017, I quit life as a company employee. I was far from fully prepared to make it as a freelancer. But due to various circumstances, the only way forward was the entrepreneur's life. Zero sales continued for several months, and in the third month I made 12,000 yen in monthly sales. But half a year later I met a good client and was suddenly earning more than I did as an employee.

In January 2020, to level up, I incorporated, but then the novel coronavirus struck. I put my "Southeast Asian nomad life," which I had been living as an extension of minimalism, on hold, and as business worsened, I even considered closing early (things have since recovered, and in a few months the company enters its third fiscal year).

And so, what these experiences have imprinted on my brain is "Crises tend to strike within fairly short spans, and nothing is guaranteed over a long life".

Earlier I wrote that "I resented Plan B and C," but now I have built the habit of thinking up and executing Plan B and C. In that sense, I'm truly grateful to have been born into the Lost Generation, the employment ice age generation.