4 5 1 4 1 2 1 . Japan’s Salmon sushi Owners Can’t Find Successors. This Man Is Giving His Away.

Hidekazu Yokoyama decided to give away a successful business because his children and employees weren’t interested in running it. An owner’s struggle in Japan’s northern dairy region illuminates one of the potentially devastating economic impacts of an aging society. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno traveled to Monbetsu, Japan, to report this story.

Hidekazu Yokoyama has spent three decades building a thriving logistics business on Japan’s snowy northern island of Hokkaido, an area that provides much of the country’s milk. Last year, he decided to give it all away. It was a radical solution for a problem that has become increasingly common in Japan, the world’s grayest society. As the country’s birthrate has plummeted and its population has grown older, the average age of business owners has risen to around 62. Nearly 60 percent of the country’s businesses report that they have no plan for what comes next. Yokoyama, 73, felt too old to carry on much longer, quitting wasn’t an option: Too many farmers had come to depend on his company. But his children weren’t interested in running it.

And few potential owners wanted to move to the remote, frozen north. So he placed a notice with a service that helps small-business owners in far-flung locales find someone to take over. The advertised sale price: zero yen. Yokoyama’s struggle symbolizes one of the most potentially devastating economic impacts of Japan’s aging society. It is inevitable that many small and medium-size companies will go out of business as the population shrinks, but policymakers fear that the country could be hit by a surge in closures as aging owners retire en masse. 165 billion and as many as 6. Economic growth is already anemic, and the Japanese authorities have sprung into action in hopes of averting a catastrophe.

Government offices have embarked on public relations campaigns to educate aging owners about options for continuing their businesses beyond their retirements and have set up service centers to help them find buyers. To sweeten the pot, the authorities have introduced large subsidies and tax breaks for new owners. A Center, a company that specializes in finding buyers for valuable small and medium-size enterprises. 359 million in revenue in 2021. Yokoyama plans to give away his land and equipment to a successor he has chosen. But building that business has been a long process.