The paper documents the retirement financing policies in Australia and Japan, and relates these to observed labour force participation among older workers in the two countries. We find that in broad terms, observed participation in the labour market by older workers is consistent with the incentives with which they are presented. In Australia, retirement ages for both men and women have been gradually climbing in recent years, consistent with the recent introduction of a mandatory Defined Contribution superannuation scheme. In Japan, where social security reforms have made working longer more attractive for primary workers, men have been working until late ages. But consistent with the substantial subsidy to non-working spouses, female labour force participation in Japan is much lower. An unanswered question is whether policy design has been causative in these patterns, or whether it is simply a reflection of underlying social mores.