FUKUOKA – A Japanese firm is growing a “granny business” that translates seniors’ lifetime skills into paid jobs through cafés, food stalls, and community festivals. This puts elderly women, including those with dementia, at the center of local economies.
Ukiha no Takara Co. (Ukiha’s Treasure) is a firm established in the city of Ukiha in the Fukuoka Prefecture. It uses cooking, hospitality, and fashion abilities that have been built up over decades to offer paid jobs instead of volunteer work.
The goal of the program is to keep money flowing in local communities and stop elders from feeling alone.Mitsuru Okuma, 45, president and CEO of the firm that is behind the project, stated, “When seniors make money and spend it in their own communities, it helps make them lively.”
Every Thursday at 10 a.m., roughly five women in their 80s and 90s who have dementia meet in the “Grandma’s Tearoom” in Fukuoka. They put on aprons and got to work pounding pork cutlets and shredding cabbage.
The principal cook and “pin-up girl” at the cafe is 85-year-old Masako Taniguchi. She used to work in restaurants and snack bars, and now she uses that experience to cook and help customers. She sends customers off with a smile as they leave.”It’s worth it to hear people say, ‘It’s delicious,'” Taniguchi added.
The firm Okuma runs the cafe. It was formed in 2019. He said the idea came to him after hearing older people talk about how hard it was for them to get around and how bad their money problems were.
He stated, “I’d hear them say things like, ‘We can’t live on our pensions alone’ and ‘We don’t go out because we don’t have a car or money.'”
People over 75 have a hard time finding work, even if they are still enthusiastic and able to do it. Okuma added, “I thought, let’s use grandma’s wisdom and skills.”
The company presently hires about 50 seniors as contractors. Most of them are women, although there are also few men. After talking to the people that took part, the business decided to focus on food service and clothes.
The company has a few cafes in the southwestern prefecture and offers monpe, which are traditional loose-fitting Japanese work pants, as well as dried sweet potatoes online. More than 20 million yen ($130,500) in sales each year.
In October of last year, Ukiha no Takara held a festival in Ukiha where seniors showed off their hobbies, like fashion shows and music performances.
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The event gathered roughly 850 people, most of whom were seniors. The costs of running it were paid for by advertising money from sponsor companies.”Granny business is not welfare,” Okuma stated. “It’s about making chances.”
The idea is now expanding beyond Fukuoka. Company worker Moe Oga, 29, created a food booth in Wakayama after being inspired by the project.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, her grandmother, who used to own a snack bar, shuttered her store. Later, she got dementia and lost her energy.
Oga got in touch with Okuma for help after reading about what he was doing online. He opened “Grandma’s Bar” late last year. The stall sells side dishes made by older people.”I want to make a place where people of all ages can talk and get ideas,” Oga stated.
Yukiko Tsukamoto, 51, who runs an assisted senior housing facility in Kumamoto, aims to open “Grandma’s Cafe” this March. Residents will work in the cafeteria, and many of them say they want to spend their pay to buy clothes.
Tsukamoto stated that when residents practiced by running a stall at a festival last October, they looked a lot younger. Okuma said he wants to keep growing the model.He remarked, “I want to work with a lot of people to make a place where older people can shine.”
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