Japan’s older workers make up 31.3% of serious workplace accidents

Employees 60 and above accounted for 42,318 serious workplace accidents in Japan in 2025, or 31.3% of all cases, The Straits Times said in an Oct. 19 news report.

The figures show the safety cost of Japan’s older workforce. Senior employment reached 12.13 million people in 2025, more than twice the 2005 level, the report said, citing an Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry labour-force survey.

The workplace accident count covers fatalities and injuries severe enough to keep employees away from work for at least four days. The Straits Times, citing The Japan News/Asia News Network, said the total for workers 60 and older had more than doubled over 20 years.

Japan revised the Industrial Safety and Health Law in April, requiring companies to make efforts to reduce accidents among older staff. More than six months later, the report said some measures have not been completed because of administrative and financial burdens on companies.

At Fukuoka Airport’s domestic terminal, where expansion and renovation work is under way, Taisei has used red helmet stickers to identify workers aged 60 or older, along with stronger lighting and black-and-yellow tape to mark small floor-level changes, the report said.

Older staff account for more than 10% of the roughly 500 workers at the airport construction site, which involves about 25 companies, according to the report. Mitsuo Fujimoto, a 77-year-old plasterer at the site, said: “People around me often speak to me to check (if I’m okay).”

The report said no major work-related accidents had been recorded at the airport project since construction began in spring 2025. It also said the project was running about one month ahead of schedule.

The broader data point to a sharper safety burden for older employees. Accident rates involving falls and similar incidents were about twice as high for elderly men as for men in their 30s, and about five times as high for elderly women as for women in their 30s, the report said.

Absences also lengthen with age, according to the report. About 60% of workers in their 60s who suffered workplace accidents were off work for one month or longer.

Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry issued guidance in 2020 to prevent workplace accidents among older employees. It also offers subsidies of up to 1 million yen, or S$8,100, for small and midsize companies that adopt preventive steps, including expert safety assessments and equipment to reduce physical strain.

The report attributed the increase in senior workers partly to the extension of the retirement age. The data do not show how much of the accident increase stems from age, industry mix, job type or the larger number of older people remaining employed.

Source: News report, The Straits Times / The Japan News-Asia News Network, Oct. 19, 2026.