Bāchan Business: Fukuoka Initiative Provides Income and Purpose for Women in Their Golden Years

From left, Naitō Miyako (89), Uchiyama Keiko (83), and Kunitake Tokie (78) talk as they go about their duties. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Dried sweet potatoes made from the beniharuka variety. The tubers, which are dried for 60 days, have proved popular thanks to their sweetness and chewiness. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Ukihanotakara’s monpe are functional and comfortable. They have proved popular with men and women in all age groups. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

The women work in the morning once or twice a week for three to four hours and earn ¥992 an hour, the current minimum wage in Fukuoka Prefecture. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

The cover of the magazine features the vibrant faces of different bāchan. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

The magazine on display at a local supermarket. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Ōkuma Mitsuru. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Elderly women with dementia prepare tonkatsu at the bāchan café, demonstrating that they still have much to share. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Taniguchi Karen (right), an intern at Ukihanotakara and a student at the design college where Ōkuma is a lecturer, plays a key role in design work for the magazine and cafés. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Business partners gather for a meeting. The members were brought together thanks to Ōkuma’s power to connect people. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Work is currently underway to refurbish a 150-year-old home in Kurume for a new bāchan café. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)

Ōkuma outside the old house. He hopes to open such vacant homes to the community. He has seen an uptick in people reaching out to him about his social experiment with cafés. (© Ōnishi Naruaki)