[gomichild]

What a stupid article. There is very little of the "free and easy" lifestyle as a freeter. They often work 40 hours a week at crazy times and have no back-up support such as health insurance or super-annuation. Unlike previous generations they don't want to be tied to one company and have to do overwork for free.

It kinda glossed over the high unemployment situation a little too.

[ramchop]

"Although I cut back on my spending, I have enough money to go out with friends and live comfortably," said Onodera, who makes about y160,000 (US$1,354) per month for her 40-hour work week and even manages to squeeze out some extra cash to save.

40-hours a week is a part-time job? What's a full-time job?

Or is this a "temporary" vs "permanent" employment rather than a "part-time" vs "full time" thing?

[Darkwing]

At my office the people will generally work at least 50 hours a week. I would not say that they are neccessarily more productive than if they worked a 40 hour week but it makes them feel good about themselves.

I guess a fulltime job would range anywhere from 50-80 hours per week.

[Gestalt]

Shorter hours, minimal stress and enough money to shop, play and even save.

Ah.. Those freeting moments of happiness..

[GuyJean]

I would not say that they are neccessarily more productive than if they worked a 40 hour week but it makes them feel good about themselves.

BINGO!

I used to think Japanese management was superior. Then I moved to Japan and got a job in a Japanese company; Production is NOT priority. (I think production somehow disturbs the 'wa' in Japan).

Priority lies in how many times you can say "tsukaretta" while appearing as tired, or more tired than your co-workers, doing just as meaningless tasks as yourself, as inefficiently as possible.

Who cares if they work 80 hours if 80% of it is unnecessary?

(Actually, I've heard it's different for the maniac engineers.)

That's just my own experience, but I've heard similiar complaints from others. China will slap them into efficiency.. I hope.

GJ

[cstaylor]

Anyone here ever play the "I'm sorry I don't understand" card? My wife gets angry when I do that in a meeting (since she knows what grammar I understand), but it is an effective way to get out of doing something difficult.

[American Oyaji]

Do you work with your wife?

[cstaylor]

With my wife for her father's company.

[kotatsuneko]

heh i work between 12 and 16 hours a week

last month i earned 150,140

i thought that was pretty good

the wife says i am lazy and need to earn more

do i really have to go work for nova like she says? anyone know which of the big schools is the less hassle? i`m really not looking forward to having to act like an nhk gaijin..

maybe i should get a bar job or something? i guess i`m out of luck hoping for a non smoking bar tho..

still, spring is here.. thats nice..

[ramchop]

last month i earned 150,140

i thought that was pretty good

Is the cost of living quite cheap in Sapporo?

[GomiGirl]

I work between 12-16 hours per day!!

I won't scare you with how little fundage I actually took home - the joys of a small business...

but then I do enjoy what I do as we are making a contribution.

[Neo-Rio]

I'm working for a Japanese company too, and from what I have been taught from high up, is that I cannot really leave for home while other people in my group need me on the tasks they aer doing while at work (why don't they just go home?).

What pees me off more than that though, is the hypocracy suurounding punctuality here. It is impolite to be late for the start of work (because customers may call up after 9), but it's somehow OK to be as impunctual as you possibly can when you're supposed to be going home.

If the Japanese really valued the importance of being on time, they'd go home at 5:30 like normal people with lives do.

[Big Booger]

Fuck Japan.. and their fucking dumbass rules.. I hate their call to duty.. I hate their BS..

They are driving their country down the shitter by holding on to ideas that seemed to work 20-30 years ago, but have since caused the demise of Japan..

The only way I'd work that hard is if I was guaranteed a pension, benefits, and a lifetime job with an ever increasing salary...

But companies are at the same time cutting all of that shit out.. and expecting workers to do the same amount of work.. horseshit..

All they do is dick around after work, bullshit and such..

JAPANESE ARE THE MOST INEFFICIENT WORKERS IN THE WORLD!!! IMHO.

I see it first hand. If I write a 5-7 page report, it takes all of 2 hours at the most.. The same report in Japanese, takes a typical worker 5-8 hours...
such is this.. so sad and pathetic.

[Pizzicatoblue]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

[cstaylor]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

It was a trouble of translation... the proper english is
"hardly working".

[Taro Toporific]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

It was a trouble of translation... the proper english is
"hardly working". ]

Sure they working real hard on getting sleep creases in their foreheads resting on their desktops here at Maybe-the-Largest Inc.
Sometimes we have had 1,765 software engineers in the "Software Factory" all in the "WAIT" mode for months. My sempai calls it...
"Life in the Off-ramp."

[kotatsuneko]

this makes sense to me at least , and maybe they just want to have a life.. i dunno i guess the current teenage gen will have growing pains, but maybe their kids will balance things out.. i thought the teens were aliens at first and disliked them compared to the 35/50 gen ppl i generally like, but these days, after talking to some of them in odori park, the breakdancers et al, i reckon they will be ok.. i mean the greatest hope at the mo in japanese youth seems to me the musicians going out busking etc..

dont know if any of this makes sense as ive just come back from having a 30 mins injection for the flu .. ^^ 2200 yen, ouch!

i guess sapporo is one of the cheaper cities.. our rent is a good 3rd less than london!

out to see the yokosoi thingy..

[Taro Toporific]

Officials worry as younger Japanese embrace 'freeting'

Transsexuals' SOS answered
Lawmakers push gender-change bill for family registers
Friday, June 6, 2003 Japan Times
....This inconveniences and humiliates many transsexuals trying to carry out everyday tasks, such as applying for official documents or public welfare programs, according to Aya Kamikawa, a 35-year-old transsexual who was elected in April to the Setagaya Ward Assembly in Tokyo.
Many transsexuals opt to work as part-timers in order to conceal their legally registered gender, causing them to live socially unstable lives, Kamikawa said.

[Taro Toporific]

What a stupid article....
It kinda glossed over the high unemployment situation a little too.

It's a damn "stupid article" to "glossed over the high unemployment." I have to say it warms my heart to read to that at least this has become a global problem. Things are so bad recent grads are considering teaching English. :


Real world greets grads with no jobs
June 5, 2003, 11:24PM / Houston Chronicle

....When she entered prestigious Rice University four years ago, Marie Schwieterman thought she would graduate with salary offers higher than her educator parents had ever dreamed of earning.

But the world changed while she earned a degree in mathematical economic analysis and prepared to become an energy trader.

The dot-com bubble burst... unable to find work in their majors and are waiting out the drought by venturing into alternative jobs or going to graduate school.

Schwieterman, who is from Houston, decided to spend this summer following in her parents' footsteps by teaching English in Japan.

"I made it through the first round of some interviews, but I never got an offer (in consulting)," she said.

According to the Kaplan test preparation service, this year's graduates are entering the worst hiring slump in 20 years.

[American Oyaji]

As for NOVA, it's not a bad gig if you are not in a huge city.

I know there are some places with like 20 classrooms.

My branch had only 6. Aomori had only 4. Hirosaki had 8, however it was open air with no walls between teaching areas.

I actually enjoyed the work. The people I worked with actually tried to teach English over and above just the basic texts we were given.

As for all the bad press English schools get, if people didn't feel they were learning, they wouldn't come back.

[Taro Toporific]

Officials worry as younger Japanese embrace 'freeting'
"The biggest reason why many can't decide what they want to do is they lack greed."

In Japan, Carefree Lifestyle Becoming Career-Free Life
- - Many young adults choose to be 'freeters' -- working at low-paying, part-time jobs. But more of them are now doing so out of necessity.
The LA Times / Sept 21 TOKYO ---
... "One of my young relatives can't decide where to work," Ikenaga says. "I said strongly, 'Do not become a freeter, because if you do, there is no way out. Any company will do, but the situation is so bad you must get a regular job.' "

In the United States and Europe, part-time and temporary jobs and even internships can be a way to gain valuable experience and, eventually, a staff job. But in Japan, that is not the case, says Reiko Kosugi, assistant research director at the Japan Institute of Labor.

"In the U.S. and Europe, it is possible for people to go from being unemployed or from part-time jobs to full-time positions as long as they have the ability and will to work," she says. "But Japan had no recent experience of unemployment, so traditionally you were expected to join as a company employee straight from school and stay. Until now, companies haven't had any other entry points. We haven't had a flexible system that allows freeters to graduate to full positions."

[Jack]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

In my opinion, Japanese people are very inneficient. From what I have seen, and we have touched on this subject before, they spend lots of time at the office but no one seems to be doing any work. On the other hand, service in restaurants is usually very efficient. Transportation is efficient. Banks are hugely inneficient.

If I was in Japan I would bolt out of the office at 5 or 5:30 and would not care what everyone thinks of it. On the other hand, it's easy for me to say since I don't live there.

[Taro Toporific]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

Believe.

[AssKissinger]

I never knew they were inefficient workers. For all this time , I thought they were very hard working people. Weird.

Believe.

The thing about the JPN is they believe in quantity not quality. Nobody cares what you do as long as you spend 14 hours a day doing it.

[Caustic Saint]

The thing about the JPN is they believe in quantity not quality. Nobody cares what you do as long as you spend 14 hours a day doing it.

That's one way to explain the runaway success of the Gameboy line. I had a bitch of a time finding the black ("executive" color) Gameboy Advance SP in Akihabara the weekend they came out.

[Big Booger]

Fuck Japan.. and their fucking dumbass rules.. I hate their call to duty.. I hate their BS..

They are driving their country down the shitter by holding on to ideas that seemed to work 20-30 years ago, but have since caused the demise of Japan..

The only way I'd work that hard is if I was guaranteed a pension, benefits, and a lifetime job with an ever increasing salary...

But companies are at the same time cutting all of that shit out.. and expecting workers to do the same amount of work.. horseshit..

All they do is dick around after work, bullshit and such..

JAPANESE ARE THE MOST INEFFICIENT WORKERS IN THE WORLD!!! IMHO.

I see it first hand. If I write a 5-7 page report, it takes all of 2 hours at the most.. The same report in Japanese, takes a typical worker 5-8 hours...
such is this.. so sad and pathetic.

I actually do not remember posting this.. what a life.

[Captain Japan]

Beautiful nation not possible with 'freeters'
Asahi

Help-wanted magazines available for free at convenience stores and izakaya pubs are filled with page after page of staff-wanted ads in delivery, security, window-cleaning and other jobs.

When people are young, they may be poor, but life is full of opportunities. One can start pursuing dreams at a wage of 1,000 yen an hour.

But it's a different story if a person is stuck flitting from one unstable job to another. The so-called "freeters"--people who work short-term, part-time jobs--have come to symbolize the nation's working poor.

In the summer of 1910, writer Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912) penned this well-known tanka poem: "No matter how hard I work/ My life doesn't get any easier/ I stare at my hands."...more...

[Catoneinutica]

Beautiful nation not possible with 'freeters'
Asahi

Wow, even the what-passes-for-moderately-leftish-in-Japan Asahi Shimbun has it in for freeters.

Freeters seem to threaten The Establishment but good; while still wage-slaves, they're not corporate serfs.