Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg News his company's food-delivery in Japan has taken an alternative route to delivering food. The country has strict laws against ride sharing, and its unemployment rate is at 2.4 percent, making a tight job market. With a growing demand for food delivery, more of the elderly population has applied to become couriers.

“The elderly are actually signing up for Eats couriers,” Khosrowshahi said. “Eats has been a huge success for us in Japan. 【2】.” In Japan, the majority of current food deliverers bring the product via scooter or bicycle, but the older generation of applicants prefer to do it by foot. 【3】; adult diapers (尿布) outsell baby diapers. “This is one area unique to Japan, and we are looking if we can expand to the rest of the world,” Khosrowshahi said.

That plan includes increasing staffing levels in Japan by at least 30 percent over the next year, and these jobs aren't limited to grannies in sneakers. 【4】. It's still a slow pace considering the San Francisco-based company has more than 22,000 employees.

Uber currently works with eight taxi cab companies in Japan, and the pedestrian courier method is a way to branch out into areas untouched so far. There are cab-hailing apps available, as well as Uber Black, a car-hire service that's only available in Tokyo for now. “It will take time, but we like what we see in terms of the potential of the market” Khosrowshahi said. “【5】.”

A.The population is aging

B.They also include sales, operations and account management

C.It is going to be a very effective introduction to the Uber brand

D.Last year, Uber shifted to partnerships with local taxi companies

E.Japan is a growing nation for food-delivery-still way far behind the US

F.But putting grandma and grandpa in running shoes seems to make sense

G.The innovations that we are going to make here are going to carry around the world