The Students

The Classes

Foresighted Insurance Seller Keeps Working by Changing to a Career Helping Elderly in Homes

By Carole-Anne Elliott
Special to the Mercury News
(This story originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on August 8, 2002. Click here to view it on the Mercury News web site)

NAGASAKI, Japan – Yoko Jyono is one of the lucky ones. Led by her heart toward a new career, and blessed with excellent timing, she was able to reposition herself and land a new job.

At age 51, she narrowly missed suffering the same type of business collapse that has catapulted many older workers in Nagasaki out of their jobs and into an uneasy future.

For 10 years, Jyono watched her mother care for her grandmother, who was in her 90s and confined to bed the last two years of her life. During that time, a "home helper'' visited, stopping by twice a week to help bathe and dress Jyono's grandmother. The experience left an impression on Jyono.

"Taking care of elders is an important job,'' said Jyono, the mother of three sons, ages 17 to 24. "Of course, the family member is the main person, but those people need help.''

Yoko Jyono practices changing the kimono on Mieko Sakimura, who like Jyono is a home health aide. Jyono helps elderly people in their homes.

Jyono thought she would enjoy the same kind of work. So two years ago, while keeping her full-time job selling life insurance for the Nagasaki branch of a national company, she went once a week to a training course for home helpers.

Over three months, she learned how to bathe the elderly, prepare easily digestible food and keep them from getting bedsores. She was certified in August 2000.

During that time, a rumor began circulating that her insurance company was in financial trouble. Customers who heard the rumor stopped buying policies. The company soon went bankrupt, and everyone was out of a job.

Everyone except Jyono.

Just a week earlier, she had quit and joined a home-helper company called Kind Hand. For nearly two years now, she has cleaned houses, shopped for and spent hours talking to elders whose family members must work during the day.

"As a human being, to help someone, especially a weak person, is very satisfying,'' said Jyono. "Someday, my mother or husband may need help. I hope this job could help me take care of them.''

Japan will need more people like Jyono in the future because life spans are lengthening: The average Japanese man now lives to age 77, the average Japanese woman to 84.

But despite the demand, those jobs will not necessarily be easy to get. Kind Hand President Toshi Sugisawa said that he would continue to advertise for home helpers throughout the year, but that only very qualified people would be hired.

For Yoko Jyono, the pull of personal interest led her to a new job at the right time.