Japanese Rental Grandmother

Japanese ‘Rental Grandmother’ Service Provides Much-Needed and Much-Loved Purpose for Older Women

When a Japanese handyman contractor faced an oversaturated market, they turned to a pretty unusual solution: a ‘rent-a-grandma.’

With few other jobs available for women over 60 other than house cleaners, the company realized that for the same reason a person might want to hire a male handyman in his 60s during a homebuilding project, someone might want to hire a grandmother for a homemaking project.

Tokyo’s Client Partners started the OK! Grandmother service in 2011, and it’s become a hit.

“I never get bored,” shared one of the rent-a-grandmas. “I get to go out and have these experiences and that’s why taking this job was the right decision for me.”

“Some people may never have had a mother in the first place,” Chief Executive Ms. Kanazawa shared. “Our grandmother staff members, who cook for the guests and act like a mother to them, help provide the motherly warmth they need.”

Along with loneliness the service may be seen as addressing another societal challenge in Japan: the size of the geriatric population. As big as anywhere else on Earth, there are fewer and fewer working-age Japanese to support the growing number of pensioners. Working can provide better economic security, but many jobs become unavailable, especially women, to those in their golden years.

In traditional societies, the elders take on just such roles: as wisdom-holders, storytellers, adjudicators, and teachers. Grandmother contractors very much fulfil that position—for a healthy hourly wage of around $55.

Sharing their love and life experience with a young family is clearly an opportunity many are happy to have and happy to do.