UK and Japan compare notes on Freeters and Neets

[Mulboyne]

Guardian: Neet generation - Japanese and UK researchers want to know why young people are choosing not to work or study.
The number of young Japanese not in education, employment or training - the neets - is now an estimated 600,000. The scale of Britain's neet phenomenon is difficult to gauge....Whether both countries really do have the same problem is a matter of debate among academics here. [A] Japanese delegation had, none the less, come halfway around the world on a damp October day to see how we deal with ours.
...Dr Michiko Miyamoto, a professor of family sociology at Chiba University near Tokyo, says: "There has never been a support service in Japan. The economic situation was so good that there was no real need for career advice or a training service." Her description of the Japanese problem would not fit the British situation: "Until 1997 or 1998 there were no neets, but in the last few years many young people have become too wealthy to have to work - there is no need, no urgency. It is a rich country's problem." The neet group in Britain, on the other hand, tends to be from the lower socio-economic groups.
...The neet phenomenon may be fundamentally different in both countries, but what about a related and slightly longer-standing problem among young Japanese: the "freeters"?...Do we have freeters in the UK, asks Mick Fletcher, research manager at the Learning and Skills Development Agency. "There are huge differences between our society and Japan, yet the analysis has disturbing resonances. There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence about young people delaying the start of a career...and harder evidence about increasing numbers of graduates returning home to live with parents."...more...

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via JapanToday: NEET youth march in Tokyo
Young people who characterize themselves as NEET, short for "not in employment, education or training," marched in Tokyo on Thursday to offer each other mutual support. The NEETs marched 7 kilometers from Shibuya to Shinjuku, holding up a banner reading "The first NEET festival." Some of them were dressed like Darth Vader in the Star Wars movie series and other characters while others disguised themselves as Japanese pilgrims. The number of young people in the NEET category is estimated at around 520,000 in Japan, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

"Neetles" Flash CM
http://www.realintegrity.net/~scrap/neet.html

[Captain Japan]

Feature: Japan frets over withdrawn youth
UPI Via The Washington Times

Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A new category of young people has recently emerged in Japan, posing a threat to the nation's well-ordered society. It includes those who are not interested in education, work or job training -- in other words, viewed in Japan as unwilling or not ready to be part of society.

Their increasing numbers are aggravating the problem of a gradually diminishing young work force, eventually undermining Japan's economic growth and threatening the already shaky social welfare system. They are called NEET, the acronym for Not in Education, Employment or Training.

It would seem that you are nobody these days until you are in a category: freeter, losing dog, parasite, neet...

[Kuang_Grade]

Well, thank goodness we don't need to worry this topic in the US as long as we have fine, hardworking (and literate) young folks like this poster on Craigslist Tokyo. The Seth Green "look" should open many doors.

http://tokyo.craigslist.org/cas/58701111.html

Attractive 25 year old seeking woman for financial help - m4w - 25

I am an attractive young man who resembles Seth Green although, girls always say that I am better looking. I have fallen on hard financial times and I am looking for a woman who likes being catered to in return for keeping me afloat financially. I do not need much but rent and food. I am extremely gifted with women and I am very good at treating women as they want to be treated. I work out everyday, I weigh 145lbs., and I'm about 5'6", but don't let my height fool you, as that is the only short thing about me. I have spent a fair amount of time learning literally everything one can do to please a woman, and It was not in vain. I am educated and I have strong interests in other cultures and lifestyles. If you like your space I do too, if not I am perfectly comfortable with being with you as much of the day as you want. I am a people person and I know how to cater to exactly what women want without being like most guys, who don't understand different people need different things. All you need to do is tell me what you are looking for and I gaurantee you won't be dissapointed. If you are interested send me an email and I will get my picture online and send it too you. I am not a greedy individual but this seems like a good opportunity to help both myself and someone who is in need of some positive attention.

this is in or around boulder, co or fly to you

[Mulboyne]

[Neo-Rio]

Shukan Post via Japan Today: 'Loser dogs' give way to 'NEET' women
They have a cool understanding of the difference between marriage and dating, and prefer an easy life. Therefore, their techniques of men hunting are as skillful as hostesses at Ginza clubs.

Yeah, cause they expect a man to fork over the yen.

Funny this should come up. Now I understand why "So what do you do?" is a bad opening line. On the other hand, it scares off the golddiggers.
Japan has taught me that I should only ever marry a rich Japanese woman... if at all.

[Captain Japan]

NEET ranks grew during economic slump
Japan Times

An estimated 847,000 single people aged between 15 and 34 were neither seeking a job nor in employment, education or training in 2002, up almost 27 percent from 668,000 a decade earlier, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday.

Such people who are not in employment, education or training are known by the acronym NEET. The increase in the ranks of NEET has prompted the government to re-examine past data. The 2002 statistics were released to the media on Tuesday.

The government hopes the data will give it a clearer picture of the phenomenon, and will consider policy steps to deal with the problem.

Of the NEET in 2002, 421,000 were reportedly uninterested in finding a job. The remainder said they wanted jobs but were not engaged in job-hunting activities, the Cabinet Office said.

The Cabinet Office figures are based on the results of a survey by the internal affairs ministry that is held every five years....more...

[AssKissinger]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GC24Dh02.html

TOKYO - Roughly 850,000 Japanese between the ages of 15 and 34 are not studying, looking for work, or in job training, and about 420,000 have no intention of being employed in the future, a Cabinet shows.

I guess they figure they can keep sucking momma's tits forever. Daddy sure is nice.

[Charles]

I guess they figure they can keep sucking momma's tits forever.

An eccentric old Irishman I know once said, "As much as the calf likes to suck, the cow likes to suckle."

[cstaylor]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GC24Dh02.html

TOKYO - Roughly 850,000 Japanese between the ages of 15 and 34 are not studying, looking for work, or in job training, and about 420,000 have no intention of being employed in the future, a Cabinet shows.

I guess they figure they can keep sucking momma's tits forever. Daddy sure is nice.

Well, they've taken your "Say no to Corporate Cocksuckers" ideology to the next level.

[dimwit]

It would seem that you are nobody these days until you are in a category: freeter, losing dog, parasite, neet...

Losing dog? I've never heard of that one!

[FG Lurker]

It would seem that you are nobody these days until you are in a category: freeter, losing dog, parasite, neet...

Losing dog? I've never heard of that one!

Aren't they the ones who aren't married by 30 and show no signs of getting married? I think they call themselves that with a hint of pride or something.

[Taro Toporific]

What to do with NEETs?

japantoday > commentary > Satoshi Fukushima / March 31, 2005
This is an interview with Michiko Miyamoto, a professor of family sociology at Chiba University, about what is causing the rise of Japanese young people dubbed NEETs, who are "not in education, employment or training," and what kind of measures should be taken to help them....more...

[Neo-Rio]

[cstaylor]

most make-inu are ugly women with nasty attitudes, with no hope of getting a man becuase they deliberately scare them all off.
Most of them are still OL and just won't quit the company like the boss wants them too. Still the company can't fire them either, so nobody really likes them.

I think that's an otsubone (spelling?). I was under the impression that whipped dogs were women who wanted to pursue a career, and then are too old to get married easily.

[Mulboyne]

Kaori Shoji on makeinu:
Japan Times: One day, Japan's 'losing dogs' will howl in unison

According to novelist Junko Sakai, who coined the phrase with her bestseller "Makeinu no Toboe (The Howl of the Losing Dog)," losing dogs are hopeless losers until they find an appropriate mate or (in the case of women) at least become a single parent. It's especially tough for women, writes Ms. Sakai, "because no matter how good-looking or successful she may be in her career, if she's alone that means she's a losing dog."

[Captain Japan]

Put `freeters' to work, ministry says
Asahi

Alarmed by a rise in the number of "freeters," people who hop from one part-time job to another without finding long-term employment, the labor ministry is planning steps to get them into full-time jobs.

Officials of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Monday they hope to reduce the more than 2 million people currently working as freeters by 200,000 in fiscal 2005.

"The increase in unskilled freeters is not just a problem for individuals. If the nation's companies fail to train our young people, Japan's international competitiveness and vitality will suffer," said a ministry official.

In addition to the freeters, about 520,000 people are categorized as "NEETs," or people "not in employment, education or training."...more...

[Captain Japan]

POINT OF VIEW/Let `freeters' be free to pursue their dreams
Asahi

At a time when the number of ``freeters'' (young people with part-time or temporary jobs) continues to rise and the unemployment rate of young people shows no sign of declining, the government is implementing a set of policy measures such as ``trial employment'' and ``job cafes'' to help them get stable jobs.

It has also set a numerical target to place 200,000 freeters in full-time jobs by the end of fiscal 2005. In May, it plans to call a national meeting of leaders from business, labor and education to tackle the problem as one that concerns society as a whole.

Of course, I think it is important to provide such support to young people who are working as freeters because they are unable to get full-time jobs. But is that really enough?

When we talk about freeters, we tend to identify their presence as an ``evil'' that threatens social infrastructure such as social security and tax revenues from the viewpoint of economy. But I find this argument aimed at ``eliminating freeters'' questionable...more...

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

IHT: Income gap in Japan: Part-timers sink below poverty line
In 2003, Takuro Morinaga, a Japanese television commentator and an economist, wrote a book called "Surviving in an Era of 3 Million Annual Income." With its illustrations of how people with low incomes - the equivalent of $28,000 or less annually - can live happily in an increasingly challenging socioeconomic environment, the book was an instant bestseller, registering sales of 200,000 copies in just 10 months. "I was right on," Morinaga said. But he said he was dead wrong about something else. There has been a rapid increase in the number of people who earn less than 2 million, which is the unofficial poverty line in Japan.
...The statistics are baffling to the Japanese. Most identify themselves as middle class even when they are slightly richer or poorer than average...But the middle-class myth is almost fiction now, Morinaga said, pointing to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that found Japan to be among the five countries with the largest income gap between rich and poor. "The poor are growing at an alarming speed in Japan, much faster than I had ever imagined," he said. "I did not foresee this."
...Economists pointed out that a pattern of widespread poverty may emerge when the current generation of parents retires and their low-income children eventually run out of parental resources to rely on...Meanwhile, Morinaga is not thinking about writing another book to help those in the income bracket of less than 2 million annually. "I guess I could write something to help, like how to find free food and so on," he said. "But I would feel depressed about writing such a book."

[Mulboyne]

Seems this TV clip has provided the iconic image for the NEET economy

[GuyJean]

U.S. Paper Says NEET Phenomenon 'shocked' Japan
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/051229/kyodo/d8eq07s09.html

The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that the recent increase in Japan of the young people described as NEET -- not in education, employment or training -- has "shocked" Japan because the "nation considers its highly trained, hard-working labor force to be its most valuable resource."

In a front-page article titled "Generation gap in aging Japan, young slackers stir up concerns," the paper said nearly 9 percent of people in the United States ages 16 to 24 are closest equivalent of NEET but the U.S. number, which includes married people, has remained "relatively steady" and this group is not viewed as much of a social threat unlike that in Japan.

I think many of these 'highly trained, hard-working' Japanese end up leaving Japan out of frustration..

NEET + Brain Drain = Retardlando

GJ

[Mulboyne]

MRZine: In Search of Metoro: Women, Youth, and Labor in Japan

Only last year, Honda's humanoid robot, Asimo, was learning how to walk. Now, the five-year-old droid is ready to take on simple office work, greet visitors and fetch refreshments. Japan's third-biggest auto manufacturer introduced Tuesday a second-generation Asimo that can also push a cart weighing up to 22 pounds, and walk straight, sideways or backwards with it. And with more joints and flexibility of movement, Asimo can also grip and carry a tray of drinks. The bubble-headed droid can also run twice as fast as a prototype unveiled last December, at 3.7 miles per hour...Honda's promotion of the new Asimo crystallizes the corporate view of women workers in Japan: Asimo is given a task that Japanese corporations have assigned "office ladies" (aka OLs),
...If there is a 21st-century director of Ishiro Honda's or Shunya Ito's caliber in Japan, she may want to make a movie that satirizes corporate Japan, like this: Tonda invents female robots, who are programmed to type, file, and ask, "Coffee, tea, or me?" Female coffee bots displace OLs. The displaced OLs, who have nothing to lose, organize fearsome biker gangs! In the meantime, female bots begin to develop political consciousness, like Roy Batty, the leader of rebel replicants in Blade Runner. The bots and the gangs of former OLs at first hate each other and attack each other, for they are both infiltrated by agents from COINTELPRO (Coffee Intelligence Program), modeled after COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) and remade in Japan by the evil Prime Minister Shunichiro Koizumi. But bots and OLs manage to overcome infiltration, under the leadership of a NEET woman Metoro ("me" = an abridged form of "mesu" = bitch, and "toro," short for Torotsukiisuto, i.e. Trotskyist; "Metoro" was an actual nickname of Chizuko Ueno, a Japanese feminist, in her youthful Marxist days), and decide to unite and fight. They together recruit other NEET boys and girls, migrant workers from Asia, burakumin, zainichi [resident] Koreans, and all other outcasts, and start a social revolution against the rule of the sexist and racist corporate elite!...more...

This article has a few interesting thoughts further in. For example:

Another way to look at it is to see the NEET phenomenon as resistance to wage labor on the part of young proletarians, just as the falling birth rate is an expression of resistance to (social and biological) reproductive labor on the part of women. Why work when jobs are scarce and available jobs pay low wages or do not fulfill your desire for autonomy and creativity? Why study or train when educational institutions are digital diploma mills? Why waste time? Why not appropriate free time, which is the most important form of social wealth in a rich industrial nation?

There is a lot of potential for NEET resistance in Japan. That is because Japan is paradoxically very modern and very traditional at the same time. Japanese parents, as long as they can afford, support their children who refuse to settle for boring education, work, and marriage, rather than push them hard to become "independent" and earn their own living as soon as possible, as American parents do. Working-class families, by pooling resources, can enable many of their younger members to withdraw from the labor market and to refuse to get married and raise the next generation of wage workers for a long time, to a degree that threatens the sine qua non of modern capitalism: constant growth, of the reserve army of labor, consumer demand, and hence economy. Thus, the working-class refusal to work or give birth, if widespread, can improve workers' bargaining position by putting pressures on capitalists to improve their offer, especially in Japan, whose power elite are inhibited by their own xenophobia from importing a large pool of immigrant labor. Indeed, in the case of women, the power elite have already been compelled to endorse a new gender equality initiative, limited as it is. The Dainiji Danjo Kyodo Sanka Kihon Keikaku (the second basic plan for gender-equal participation), approved by the Cabinet on 17 December 2005, will, for instance, prohibit discrimination (such as involuntary transfer and demotion to part-time status) based on pregnancy.