The paper asks why retirement can be so abrupt in countries such as France (1/2% of the workforce over 65), yet staged in Japan (8% over 65). We find part of the answer in tax laws that prevent people working and receiving a pension, and make little allowance for fair pension increases if...

Introduction : manhood and its discontents -- Growing old at work during the early twentieth century -- Old age poverty, pension politics, and gender during the 1920s -- Older men and the boundaries of manhood during the 1930s -- Postwar manhood and the shock of retirement -- Work, play, and...