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The story
During a segment on Japan’s super-aged society on TV Asahi’s “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle,” aired September 20, comedian Beat Takeshi (79) shared his personal views on how to live after retirement. Prefacing his remarks by noting he dropped out of college and has never worked as a company employee, he argued that “unless you have the guts to sneak off golfing or fishing behind your company’s back while you’re still working, it’s hard to keep it up as a hobby after retirement.” On 5channel’s Entertainment/Sports News+ board, this sparked a clash between those who countered that “you can start in retirement as long as you have free time and money” and defenders who argued “if you don’t start while you still have the stamina, you won’t keep it up,” with many users sharing their own experiences of how hard it is to find a hobby in old age.
9/21 (Mon) 15:29
Entertainer Beat Takeshi (79) appeared on TV Asahi’s “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle” (Sundays at noon), aired on the 20th, where he shared his personal views on what people should do before retiring amid Japan’s super-aging society.
That day’s episode was billed as a “Thorough Investigation Special: How to Wisely Survive the Super-Aged Society.” At the top of the show, after watching footage of elderly people who keep working even after receiving their pensions just to make ends meet, Takeshi began, “I’ve never really had a proper job, so I honestly don’t get it.” He continued, “I dropped out of college and went straight into show business. But in our world of entertainers, more people end up hitting what would be retirement age than ordinary people do,” he remarked quietly.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
The intensity you had during your working years shapes where you're starting from in retirement, so I kind of get what he means.
Just become a condo building manager or something. You can do that job until you're 80.
Even if you have the time and money, your stamina is gone by then. So don't put off the things you want to do — better to enjoy them while you're young.
He means you need the kind of passion where you skip work to go fishing, like in "Fishing Fool's Diary" (a classic Japanese comedy franchise about a salaryman obsessed with fishing).
Nope. Older folks who trusted the yen and just kept it in savings are struggling hard because of the weak yen.
That's fine though, lol. Do you want them coming back every year or something?
His point is: build up a hobby before retirement that you're into enough to skip work for. Do I really need to spell out every little thing?
That just means guys like you will keep enjoying life after retirement too. It's always the people who say "I'll have plenty of time after I retire, I'll find something to do then" who end up doing nothing.
Unless it's a hobby you're passionate enough about to skip work for, you won't be able to keep it up once you have all that free time on your hands.
Like, for example, telling your boss "I'm off to meet with a client today!" and then actually going golfing.
I know the one where Koji Yamamoto (baseball star) bragged to comedy duo B&B about his 70-million-yen annual salary, only for B&B to already be making 70 million yen a MONTH at that point.
Quite different from a certain Hiroyuki (referring to 2channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura, known for confidently commenting on everything).
Then again, being a company employee and being a TV personality aren't that different — you're both moving on a schedule. In terms of being tied down, it's the same thing. It's still work.
You see guys in suits lounging around the waiting room there all the time.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Takeshi himself dropped out of college and went straight into show business, so he’s never experienced retirement as a salaried company employee. Precisely because of that background, the thread saw pushback along the lines of “easy for someone who’s never had a real job to say,” alongside defenses arguing that “showbiz is just as bound by shooting schedules as regular company work.” The debate essentially splits into two camps. One is the “guts” argument: that keeping up a hobby after retirement requires the same intensity you’d need to skip work for it while still employed. The other is the counterargument that “you can start in old age as long as you have free time and money” — which itself drew a rebuttal that “stamina declines with age, so putting it off is a bad idea.” Though not mentioned in the original article, various surveys have pointed out that a significant number of older men lose their sense of purpose and see their health decline after retirement, and the thread’s recurring advice to “get a head start on hobbies while still working” echoes that broader context. That said, readers should keep in mind that the specific image of “sneaking off to golf behind your company’s back” is a metaphor rooted in the old Showa-era ethic of the workaholic company man, and doesn’t quite match today’s realities of using paid leave and more flexible working styles.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Beat Takeshi Shares His Views on Life After Retirement: “Unless You Have the Guts to Sneak Off Golfing or Fishing Behind Your Company’s Back…”.”
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