82-Year-Old Proves You're Never Too Old to Code

Looking for a new hobby? Maybe it’s time to try coding.

That’s what 82-year-old Masako Wakamiya of Japan decided to do this past year. Since learning to write code in early 2017, the retired bank clerk has gone on to author a free iOS game, Hinadan, specifically geared toward an older, Japanese audience. The app has garnered nearly 5 stars on the Apple App Store, and roughly 53,000 downloads worldwide, since its debut a year ago; Wakamiya is now busy planning future versions in English, Chinese and possibly French.

Just as Facebook and Apple see a median employee age of 29 and 31, respectively, Wakamiya is busy leaving ageist naysayers in the dust. In the months since Apple CEO Tim Cook called Wakamiya the “world’s oldest app developer” in attendance at the tech giant’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., the Tokyo native’s spotlight has only grown — no small feat in an industry where tech workers over 40 are often deemed “old.” This past year, Japan’s government appointed her to a special committee on aging; and just last month, Wakamiya was a keynote speaker at an event at the United Nations’ New York City headquarters, titled Why Are Digital Skills Critical for Older Persons?

For Wakamiya, the answer comes down to motivation. She’s unflinching in her assessment of the challenges facing Japan’s aging population (age 65 and above), which is projected to grow to 40 percent by 2055.

“Seniors tend to be depressed as they age, because they lose … family members,” said Wakamiya, in a recent interview with the millennial publication Refinery29. “By teaching them to do new things, it gives them an excitement, a motivation — I really like that feeling and being able to share that.”

After noticing a lack of mobile games for older people in her country — in the United States, AARP Games offers many options — Wakamiya asked software developers to step in. Uninterested, they suggested she make a game herself. She took them up on the suggestion. Wakamiya soon bought programming books and learned Apple’s Swift programming language through lessons with a programmer, nearly 200 miles away from her home in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture, via Facebook Messenger and Skype.