'Makudo Nanmin' -- McDonald's refugees

[Taro Toporific]

Homeless, jobless forced to take refuge under Golden Arches
The Asahi News | January 31, 2013
OSAKA--Japan’s long-moribund economy has spawned a new breed of jobless and homeless people dubbed “makudo nanmin,” or refugees at McDonald’s.
Mostly in their 30s and 40s, they typically spend the night at a McDonald’s restaurant or other late-night establishments.
“It takes 1,000 yen ($11) or so if I sleep at an Internet cafe,” a 37-year-old woman said. “I can stay at a McDonald’s for 100 yen over a cup of coffee.”
Many of the makudo nanmin graduated from school during the employment ice age from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, joined the labor market as temporary workers and eventually lost their jobs.
More...

McDonalds-refugees.jpg

Image ripped-off from DannyChoo.

I know quite a few of these "refugees"---contracted "code monkeys" who were at Hitachi but never hired full-time. Now if they have a short-term contracts at Softbank/Docomo/whatever, they sleep under their desk after midnight....Otherwise, they sleep at McDonald’s (or grandma's farm) until they get their next subcontract and a temporary desk to sleep under.

[TennoChinko]

It'll be a matter of time before one of those disillusioned 30-somethings goes on a stabbing spree and cites his generational woes as the cause. Then the issue will be discussed ad nauseum in the Japanese media.

Related article here:

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20130115D14HH960.htm

Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Job Crunch Continues For 'Ice Age' Generation

TOKYO (Nikkei)--People who graduated from university during the so-called "ice age for employment" a decade ago are still struggling in the job market, testifying to the dangers of a prolonged job crunch for younger workers.

The ratio of job offers to job seekers among university graduates was stuck below 1.4 for about 10 years starting in 1995, when Japan's long-term economic slump became evident. The ice age set in as businesses slashed hiring of new graduates.


People who graduated from university during that period are the first generation in Japan that cannot marry and raise families with a reasonable assurance of secure jobs.



Scraping By

Many graduates from that era had no choice but to become part-timers or temporary employees. One 33-year-old man who graduated from a university in Hokkaido has worked at seven companies, including manufacturers of machine tools and autoparts, as a temp. His first employer paid about 250,000 yen a month; he now earns about 220,000 yen.

Nonregular workers do not receive seniority-based wages in most cases. While workers in their early 20s earn about 80% as much as full-time workers in the same age bracket, on average, by the time they reach their late 40s, their wages are only half as high. In addition, 90% of nonregular employees are ineligible for company pensions.

The safety net for these workers has big holes. Although nonregular workers who are not covered by government unemployment insurance can receive 100,000 yen a month while looking for work, under a system created in 2011, programs to help them return to the job market are inadequate.

Permanent Handicap?

People who survived the ice age face other difficulties. "I may belong to a disadvantaged generation," laments a 33-year-old employee of Renesas Electronics Corp. (6723). He appeared to be among the lucky ones when he landed a job at Hitachi Ltd. (6501), Japan's biggest maker of electrical equipment, in the spring of 2002. The following year, he was transferred to Renesas Electronics, a new company created through the merger of the chip operations of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503) that was then called Renesas Technology Corp.

But Renesas Electronics fell deeply into the red; 20% of its workforce left the firm under an early retirement program put in place last October.

In Japan, new employees are typically hired en masse, fresh out of school. People who fail to land jobs before or soon after graduating often find it difficult to get hired on later, unless they have special skills.

For those caught in Japan's ice age, one response has been to leave for warmer climes. Dan Takeda, 31, began his career at a food company after graduating from university, but he got laid off the following year due to financial problems at his employer.

Takeda took the radical step of heading abroad in search of better job opportunities, opening a flower shop in Singapore. He has expanded his business through aggressive marketing, and now his flower arrangements can be seen in the windows of famous European-brand boutiques.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first government in 2006 tried to support young people caught in the job crunch and to cut the number of casual, part-time workers to 80% of the 2003 level, but the ratio still stands at 84%. Meanwhile, the number of such workers over the age of 35, who were not covered by the program, has risen 50% to an estimated 440,000.

Traditional hiring practices in Japan make the hurdles for people looking to rejoin the regular labor force increasingly high for people in their late 30s and older. Casual workers caught in the ice age are now entering that difficult-to-hire age group.

A priority for Abe's second government will be to create an employment environment that lets people who have fallen out of the regular labor force find a way back in.

(The Nikkei, Jan. 13 morning edition)

[McTojo]

Good read. Thanks for posting.