A Generation of NEETs in the throes of the “Lost Decade”Return to Essay List

 There has been a growing phenomenon among 15–34 year old Japanese of not being part of the traditional labor force.  Known as NEETs or “not in employment, education or training,” these individuals are commanding a significant presence in Japanese society (Woods, 2005).  A great degree of undeserved criticism in popular discourse surrounding this phenomenon needs to be addressed. This research attempts to reveal how these youths reflect the changes that have been taking place in Japanese society in order to address some of these misconceptions, and ultimately to draw a correlation with the psychoanalytical perspectives of Dr. Takeo Doi.

Employment outlook in Japan

• Japan has been trying to reconcile an enormous amount of bad debt ever since the collapse of its Bubble Economy in the early 1990s.  Doing so has required drastic restructuring of employment practices.  Subsequently, long-term jobs with growth potential have become harder to come by, whereas the supply of non-long-term jobs has risen in its stead (Genda, 2001, p. 57).   
• The current job market in Japan is especially bleak for those under 35 years of age who do not already have full-time tenured positions (Genda, 2001, p. 3).
• The opportunity for on-the-job training has now become exceptionally low.  Without on-the-job training, the probability for inter-company and intra-company advancement is exceedingly low, so even landing a job does not necessarily mean that one is in the clear. 

• Fewer companies are hiring. Many companies have shifted their manufacturing jobs overseas where economically priced labor is more readily available (Buckley, 2004).
• Many companies are retaining a large number of vested workers who are expensive to keep, but have been such a labor and financial investment to train that it is hard to justify getting rid of them.
• Also, it is nearly impossible to fire employees due to strict retrenchment laws and possible judgment against companies from the community.
• In addition, the extension of the retirement age necessitated by the longer life span has meant an even larger number of costly, vested workers.
• The above situation will further curb the hiring of new employees (Genda, 2001, p. 38). 

• Fewer available jobs means that finding a job one actually wants and has prepared for has been increasingly becoming a pipedream. 
• The time right after graduation is the optimal time (and some would contend the only time) to obtain employment, but if that is not done, one may choose not to work because having had any job other than a full-time tenured position after the completion of one’s highest level of education is a stigma which one must carry to every interview and which acts as a powerful deterrent for being hired (Woods, 2005).
• Without ever being a full-time tenured employee, it is not at all easy to become one. 
• New recruits that are hired as full-timers tend to be pigeonholed into putting in long hours doing meaningless tasks.  In spite of keeping busy, they are not likely to develop useful skills, without a generous degree of their own initiative (Genda, 2001, p. 5).   

The buzz (misconceptions the media and popular discourse are circulating)

• The media has been decrying the declining work ethic of these youths but statistics prove that this is not the case—as a group their average time spent at any one company has not been declining.  When they do change jobs, it is often for the express intent of finding more suitable employment, or better working conditions (Genda, 2001, p. 54). 
• Meanwhile, it has also been common to claim that the older generation has been the greatest victim of the lackluster economy.  Yet, statistics prove otherwise: as a group the number of years those over 50 spend at any one company has been increasing (though the opposite is believed) (Genda, 2001, p. 43). 

• This has pulled focus away from the worse-yet situation of the younger generation who have been given scant opportunity to participate at all in the lifetime employment system.  (Genda, 2001, p. 43).

• Another popular assumption is that youths are voluntarily abstaining from entering the work force while older workers are out of work involuntarily.  Most economists, however, would argue that drawing a distinction between voluntary and involuntary is quite tricky.  For example, if a carpenter is out of work, s/he will be unlikely to accept work as a painter. If only painting jobs abound and this carpenter does not accept that work, s/he is indeed unemployed as a matter of personal choice. To put it more bluntly, there is a huge disparity between types of jobs offered and those that are suitable and/or desired (Genda, 2001, p. 4). 

• There are many categories of jobless youths (All figures from 2002): 

Jobless and actively seeking employment: 1.28 million
Not in the labor force but have looked for work: 2.51 million
Not in the labor force but desire to work: 426,000
Neither in the labor force nor desire to work: 421,000
Of these groups, NEETs make up 850,000, consisting mostly of the latter two types (Genda, 2005, p. 3).

• NEETs make up about 25% of the fairly constant unemployment rate of 3.5 million (not counting those who have not looked or are not looking) and about 40% of the 2.13 million jobless youths (Statistics Bureau & Statistics Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2005).
• Compared to this, the roughly 50,000 unemployed older college graduates (ages 45 – 54) that approximately constitute a meager 1.6% of the unemployed population seem to hardly justify the interest they have spurred (Genda, 2001, p. 29-30).

• Most importantly, NEETs show a strong desire to work.  Professor Yuji Genda, an expert on NEETs, has this to say: "I have never met a NEET who doesn't want to work. My impression is that they want to work too much. They think about what is the goal or concept of work too much. They are very serious" (Buckley, 2004).
• Many lack self-confidence, do not know which path is best for them to take and fear making a wrong decision that may adversely affect their careers.  For a long time, it was customary for companies to take such individuals under their wing, let them dabble here and there and more or less assist them in figuring out what direction their talents and interests may lead.  Reluctance on the part of employers to engage in this practice as of late has contributed greatly to this rapidly ballooning problem (Kosugi, 2005, p. 6).    
•  Most don’t see value in working at any job other than a full-time, tenured position (Buckley, 2004). 

• After WWII, Japan became preoccupied with the goal of making a name for itself and surpassing the West.  That being accomplished, no new goal has yet to materialize that could enrapture the country at the national level. 
• Working towards the same goal instilled the nation with a sense of purpose and the prudence to ignore any suspected glitches in the system and in effect to shelve one’s own honne (personal motives and opinions held in the background) so as not to disturb the harmony of progress.  Conversely, with the collapse of the Japanese economy and the country at somewhat of a standstill, attention has been turned to these glitches and serious questions have been raised aoubt the supposed infallibility of the Japanese system—its promises can no longer be kept and many are being left behind (Doi, 1986, pp. 36-37).   
• The dilemma these youths are witnessing firsthand stems from the fact that though many of them have been abiding by the same tatemae (consensual institutions) and following the same prescribed path as former generations, it has not yielded the same congruent rewards.  Realizing this, awareness that a new path must be laid out for successive generations has been roused.  The vested generation, however, has not yet heeded to this change, as they have been gripping their reins all the more tightly.  These youths are a product of the decisions and actions made by the older generation that are only concerned with self-preservation and do not have the youths’ best interests foremost in mind.    

• In this case, a passive approach and an active one stand out.  The active one is by nature more conscious and revolves around those who understand the situation for what it is.  However, the younger generation may in fact take the passive approach and harbor a resentment for the older generation who had never been required to muster a real set of values for themselves, and never suffered the burden of taking any real responsibility for the choices they have made and by extension have neither lent any values to the younger generation nor have taught them how to take responsibility for their decisions.  The actions of the younger generation can be seen as a kind of amae (passive indulgence) in that they try to fish out the feelings of the older generation and coax them into making a decision on their behalf as had been done for the older generation (essentially this is a way to not have to grow up).
• Corresponding to the perfunctory process is a “quiet revolution”, stemming from and mired in this same amae mentality.  Dr. Takeo Doi, one of the foremost experts on amae, has even gone so far as to dub the twentieth century the “century of the child,” based on his explanation that “everyone has become more childish.” In addition, the pace at which children experience the world has resulted in many being far too mature to consider their elders as adults.  On the other hand, “the ‘adult adult’ of the past has disappeared and the number of childish adults has increased.  And the element common to both adult-like [children] and childlike adults is amae” (Doi, 1986, p. 163).   
• What has been happening then is that those who are passively resisting by their mass stay-at-homes are indulging (exercising amae) on their parents’ willingness to take care of them and are thereby balancing out the lack of values that their parents offered up and the older generation’s unwillingness to make room for them in the workplace.  To the younger generation, this indulgence (amae) is a rather nominal consolation.  Equally, adults feel compelled, if not obliged, to allow it.  If this is true, then one can expect that the “increase in the number of children who never grow up,” would be positively correlated to the “increase in the number of childish parents,” who, by their very nature, permit their children to indulge indefinitely (Doi, 1973, p. 164).  Without a doubt, it does not help the situation when both sides show a reluctance to actually become “adult adults.”
• “In practice, the present tendency to shelve all distinctions—of adult and child—in favor of a uniform childish amae can only be called a regression for mankind, yet it may prove to be a necessary step towards the creation of a new culture of the future, since it is recognized that in the individual the creative act is preceded by a kind of regressive phenomenon” (Doi, 1986, p. 165).    
• For the time being, this tendency towards “uniform childish amae”  is likely to continue proliferating until outside forces change.  One can only hope that when the situation does change and the circumstances permit, it will make way for a reconstituted tatemae with truly “adult adults” as its ridgepole.