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At 90, Tamiko Honda is the oldest McDonald’s painter in Japan, according to local media, but she is not yet in a position to hang up her painting boots.
Honda says running is key to his fitness and that he plans to continue until he is at least 100 years old, according to media reports in September.
“I’ve never missed a shift because of illness. Going to paint and talking to other young people helps me stay alive. Not even the coronavirus makes me sweat,” Honda, who lives in the city of Kumamoto, told local newspaper Mainichi. .
A typical day in your professional life begins with a 20-minute drive to your McDonald’s in Kumamoto. She works five days a week, in three-hour shifts at 7:30 a. m. M. , sweeping the restaurant.
Although she is the longest-serving McDonald’s worker in Japan lately, the country’s oldest worker at the fast-food giant appears to be Yoshimitsu Yabuta, 95, according to Japanese media outlet SoraNews24.
According to SoraNews24, Honda had to quit her previous jobs as a nurse and housekeeper, because those jobs had a mandatory retirement age that crossed to 61 as a nurse and 67 as a housekeeper.
He then applied to work at McDonald’s in 2000, with no age limit, at his daughter’s suggestion, according to Mainichi.
Although her daughter died in 2011, Honda told the media she said goodbye to a photo of her daughter before leaving for work.
Japan has the world’s oldest population, and about one-third of its population is 65 or older. That means the country has more than 36 million seniors, according to a 2023 World Economic Forum report. And there are now more than nine million workers over the age of 65, more than 10% of the national workforce, according to government data released last week.
McDonald’s Japan did not respond to an Insider’s request for comment.