A 90-year-old McDonald's employee in Japan swears working is the key to her health, and she doesn't plan to stop before age 100

A 90-year-old McDonald's employee in Japan swears working is the key to her health, and she doesn't plan to stop before age 100

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• Tamiko Honda, a 90-year-old McDonald's employee, says that work is the key to her health.
• "I have never missed a shift due to illness. Coming to work and talking with young people keeps me lively," she told local outlet Mainichi.
• Nearly one-third of Japan is aged 65 and up, making it the world's oldest population.

At 90, Tamiko Honda is the oldest female employee at McDonald's Japan, per local news reports. But she's not ready to hang up her work boots just yet. 

Honda says that working is the key to her health — and that she plans on continuing until she's at least 100 years old, according to various media reports in September.

"I have never missed a shift due to illness. Coming to work and talking with young people keeps me lively. Even the coronavirus is no sweat," Honda, who lives in Kumamoto city, told local outlet Mainichi.

A typical day in her work life begins with a 20-minute commute to her McDonald's branch in Kumamoto. She works five days a week, starting her three-hour shifts at 7:30 a.m. by sweeping the restaurant.

Though she is currently the oldest female employee at McDonald's Japan, the country's oldest worker at the fast-food giant appears to be 95-year-old Yoshimitsu Yabuta, according to Japanese media outlet SoraNews24.

According to SoraNews24, Honda had to leave her previous jobs as a nurse and cleaner. That's because these jobs had a mandatory retirement age which she crossed at age 61 as a nurse and at age 67 as a cleaner.

She then applied for a job at McDonald's in 2000 — which has no age restriction — based on a suggestion from her daughter, per Mainichi.

Though her daughter passed on in 2011, Honda told news outlets she always says goodbye to a picture of her daughter before she heads off to work.

Japan has the world's oldest population, with nearly one-third of its population aged 65 and up. That means the country has over 36 million senior citizens, according to a World Economic Forum report in 2023. And there are now over 9 million workers aged 65 and up —  making up over 10% of the national workforce — according to government data released last week.

McDonald's Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

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