The Japanese government at a cabinet meeting Tuesday adopted a bill for revising the law on stabilizing the employment of elderly people to urge companies to make efforts for helping their employees secure jobs until the age of 70.

The legislation is aimed at promoting the employment of elderly people who have desires and abilities to work and increasing the number of those who support the country's social security system amid the rapid graying of its population.

The revised law will go into effect in April 2021 if it is approved at the ongoing regular session of the Diet, the country's parliament.

Under the revised law, companies will be asked to abolish or push back the retirement age, or take such options as supporting elderly employees' entrepreneurship or their social contribution activities.

The bill also calls for improving the worker compensation system to make it easier for people having multiple jobs to receive benefits.

It is also designed to make the certification of work-related death or mental illness for such people easier by comprehensively taking into account such factors as work hours and workloads at different workplaces.

JIJI Press