(Tokyo) A nursing home in Japan is “hiring” babies for essential work: keeping elderly residents company and making them smile. Salary ? Diapers and powdered milk.
Posted at 9:50 a.m.
New hires to the facility in Kitakyushu must be under the age of 4 and their parents or guardians must sign a contract stipulating that babies and young children can come to work “whenever they just want”.
They are allowed to take a break “when they are hungry, sleepy or according to their mood”, specifies the contract.
More than 30 babies have signed up so far, tasked with lifting the spirits of more than 100 residents, mostly in their 80s, said Kimie Gondo, who runs the nursing home.
“Just seeing babies makes our residents smile,” she told AFP, adding that “there is no roster or anything.”
A job advertisement pinned to the wall of the establishment reads in large letters “We are hiring! and informs candidates that they will be paid for their diaper and powdered milk services.
The main – and perhaps the only – responsibility of the successful candidates will be to “walk around” the retirement home in the company of their parents or guardians, we can still read.
“Babies stay with their mother all the time. It’s like taking them for a walk in a park,” Ms.me Gondo.
The locals seem delighted with the young recruits and greet them, strike up conversations or give them hugs.
” They are cute. It reminds me of when I was a parent,” a resident of the care home told a local TV station.
So far, the project has produced excellent results, according to Mme Gondo. “Some of the children get along so well with our residents that they are now like real grandparents and grandchildren.”