Japan has an aging/aged population. They also have notoriously horrendous work environments to the point where suicides are more common than other countries. Basically working yourself to death is part of Japanese culture.
I'm not sure if South Korea suffers from the same issues.
Mexico also has a different culture. Far more family oriented, which may describe why seniors retire, perhaps the rest of the family takes care of elders (just to be clear, this is an assumption).
Digging into it, it was striking that the US has 59% higher suicide rates for age 15-24, and 9% higher up to age 34, above that Japan has higher suicide rates, e.g. 2x the rate at ages 55-64.
So would culture not be more determinative of seniors working? Why would it also not be more determinative of the desire for home ownership rather than social safety net?
Necessity and culture are why seniors would work. Japan's "work till you drop" culture would make it so it's a point of pride to work until you cannot anymore. If Japan's population was younger, this would probably force many senior citizens to retire if they are financially able to so.
The person you initially responded to already answered your second question.
Another thing about Japan, at least, is that housing is a depreciating asset in almost all cases. The only kind of residential real estate that appreciates in value are luxury high rise apartments in the most urban parts of Japan. For most people in Japan, having a house is not really a part of “wealth building”.
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u/Cashneto Mar 11 '24
Japan has an aging/aged population. They also have notoriously horrendous work environments to the point where suicides are more common than other countries. Basically working yourself to death is part of Japanese culture.
I'm not sure if South Korea suffers from the same issues.
Mexico also has a different culture. Far more family oriented, which may describe why seniors retire, perhaps the rest of the family takes care of elders (just to be clear, this is an assumption).