They are remodeling the station near where I work in Tokyo, and I marvel at the diligence of the security guards directing pedestrians inconvenienced by the building work. Virtually all the guards are seniors, most likely retirees from other forms of employment. I usually arrive at my station by 6 a.m., and there they are, crisply uniformed, saying "Good morning" to commuters and courteously pointing the new way up the stairs.

Many years ago, in Kyoto, we lived in a condominium whose janitor was a retired company president and landowner. He could have lived off the fat of his land, or, as the Japanese say, "with a fan in his left hand (hidari uchiwa de kurasu)." But he chose to look after the building, sweep the grounds and field complaints; and a jolly good janitor he was.

Traditionally in Japan, there has been no stigma about doing menial labor in most lines of work. To many in the West, a former executive who was doing the job of a janitor — and doing it with a personal sense of joy and fulfillment — would be viewed as having "come down" in life. Not so in Japan, where such honest work is considered respectable.