3/7/2010

NPR is running a great slideshow of The Jobs Of Yesteryear – Obsolete Occupations, “as computers and automated systems increasingly take the jobs humans once held, entire professions are now extinct.” Sadly, the list didn’t include the tongue-in-cheek profession my father put in his obituary, “draftsman” (rather than being an architectural/civil/environmental engineer).

However, little does NPR know that in high-tech Japan, most large department stores in major cities still have cute-squeaky elevator girls. Often there are TWO girls for the elevator: one who remains outside the elevator and another who operates the carriage. Being squeaky cute is never an “obsolete occupation” in Japan.

Japanese image via Slick Vic’s Flickr

See more videos of Japanese elevator girls below the fold in the comments…