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“An extended retirement age means being forced to work until you die.” This is a sentiment increasingly voiced by people in their 40s and 50s. But at the root of this despair may lie a corporate-slave mindset—the idea of entrusting your entire life to your company.

The increasingly popular concept of a “Retirement Shift” is a positive new approach designed to break away from this passive way of working and reclaim the right to decide for yourself: “If I want to quit, I can quit whenever I want.”

Why are Japanese people so reluctant to decide for themselves when they will retire?

Below, FP Shunsuke Yamazaki, author of “RETIRE SHIFT,” explains the mindset and concrete actions needed to break free from a lifetime of being a corporate slave and take back control of your life by making use of NISA and iDeCo.

The reality of employment until age 70 is fast approaching

Most companies still have a retirement age of 60. The common perception is that after that, employees are rehired under a reemployment system or similar arrangement and continue working until they become eligible for pension benefits at 65, but with their salaries drastically reduced. Surely, you know someone who has been treated poorly after turning 60.

In fact, this conventional wisdom about people in their 60s is beginning to change. More companies are setting their retirement age at 65 or even older. In 2005, only 6% of companies had a retirement age of 65. That figure has risen sharply in recent years, and at this rate, it would not be surprising if half of all companies adopted a 65-year retirement age within five years.

Moreover, many companies that have set their retirement age at 65 are expected to introduce systems allowing employees to remain employed until 70. One in three companies has already established an environment that enables employees to work until 70, reinforcing the trend toward a five-year shift in the retirement age.

“I have to work another five years?!” “So basically, they want us to work until we die. Fine, fine.” I can almost hear the readers’ cries of frustration. But the situation is changing. You don’t have to work until 70 if you don’t want to. In fact, we are entering an era in which retiring earlier is becoming a real possibility.

Taking control of your right to quit at 65

I call the social changes surrounding retirement the “Retirement Shift.”

The most exciting aspect of the Retirement Shift era is the shift in who gets to decide when you retire. Until now, the government and companies held the upper hand in determining the retirement age.

If the government pushed back the age at which public pension benefits began, we had little choice but to keep working, even for low wages. If a company set its retirement age and offered only low-paid work between the ages of 60 and 65, we had no real alternative but to accept it.

But in an era when 65 is becoming the standard retirement age, the situation is being reversed. For the time being, the fact that you can receive your pension at 65 is not changing. Although benefit levels are in the process of being reduced, the basic fact that you can receive standard pension benefits at 65 remains unchanged.

If that is the case, there is no longer any need to cling to your company after 65. From that point on, we get to decide whether we are willing to keep working, based on factors such as whether the job itself is fulfilling and whether the balance between the work and the compensation is worthwhile.

The same HR department that once pressured you to stay may one day come to you humbly and say, “Please don’t retire yet. We need you to keep working beyond 65. We’re short-staffed!”

But this time, we hold the upper hand. An era is coming in which we—not the company or the government—get to decide at what age we want to stop working. Isn’t that a rather satisfying vision of the future? (In fact, that future is already becoming a reality at one in three companies.)

And your freedom to quit may be something you can exercise even earlier. More and more employees are gaining the financial freedom to retire before reaching 65.

NISA Millionaires can retire at 60

There is another major change taking place: more people are building wealth through NISA and iDeCo. NISA is sometimes criticized as essentially saying, “You’re on your own to make up the shortfall in your pension.” But I see it differently. I view it as a means of gaining the freedom to retire.

Recently, as more people have taken advantage of NISA and iDeCo and stock prices have continued to rise, the number of individual investors with assets of ¥50 million or even ¥100 million is steadily increasing.

In fact, when we look at NISA participation rates, usage is particularly high among people in their 30s through 50s. The old image that investing is something people start doing in their 60s is becoming outdated—the investor population is getting younger.

According to a survey conducted in July 2025, one in five people (around 20%) in their 50s who invest had assets of at least ¥30 million. Given the rise in stock prices since then, that figure might now be closer to one in four. Even while still of working age, these people are accumulating enough assets that they could potentially retire not only at 65, but even at 60, without financial difficulty.

If your company stubbornly keeps its retirement age at 60 and still offers nothing more than low-paid, routine work under a reemployment arrangement, you could simply walk away and fully retire at 60. It would be quite a sight to see the shocked faces of HR staff who assumed, “Surely they’ll keep working until 65, even for a low salary,” when you tell them otherwise.

Investing gives you more than financial breathing room in the present—it gives you the freedom to decide when you retire. That, too, is an important aspect of the “Retirement Shift.”

Break free from the company-slave mindset! Decide for yourself when to retire

Employees who are forced to endure hardship and continue working are often described as “corporate slaves.” We may have spent our lives unable to stand up to our companies, worried about being subjected to retaliatory personnel transfers or suffering financially if we were passed over for promotions or raises.

However, when it comes to retirement, it is now possible to reverse that power dynamic. In the era of the “Retirement Shift,” you can decide for yourself when you want to retire.

Those who have built substantial wealth through NISA can choose to quit at 60 or 65—or whenever they want. If you enjoy your job, you can keep working. For ordinary workers, it makes sense to continue working until 65 and then decide what to do. As more companies adopt a retirement age of 65, drastic reductions in annual income will also become less common.

As you approach 65, your company may start pleading with you to stay on and work longer. But beyond 65, you should ignore what the company wants and decide based on one question: “How long do I want to keep working?”

You might work for a few more years to pass your skills on to younger employees and then retire once you feel satisfied. There is nothing wrong with continuing to work for several years simply because the pay is good. But if the wages are low and the job offers no sense of purpose, you can turn it down. You can simply retire at 65. There is no need to worry even if the HR department looks troubled.

The era of the “Retirement Shift” is likely to bring major changes to the final chapter of the corporate-slave life.

“I decide how long I want to work.”

“I’ll work for you—as long as the conditions are right.”

That is the mindset of the “Retirement Shift” era.