Freeters & Neets : Fears for Japan's 'dropout' generation

Known here as freeters, many scenarii such as the Neets
one reach the tabloids. One is a pure hysterical
projection of those tabloids on the alleged lazy young
Japanese generations.

Most appropriate is the lack of analysis and
responsibility of the elder local generations who mostly
abandoned Japanese youth with the abyssal burden of an
indebted country, and a total lack of initiative, and
sense of rightness. Then, what does the society plan
for these unemployed free, disillusioned generations
when emergency crisis rings the bell? Cannon meat...?

quotes :

The number of Japanese youth lacking motivation to study
or work is growing at an alarming pace, fuelling fears
of future labour shortages in a nation with one of the
lowest birthrates in the world.

Some 850,000 people aged 15 to 34 are believed to be
neither in school nor employed as of October 2002,
according to a national survey released by the Cabinet
Office.

The number of such people – known as NEETS (not in
education, employment or training) – has jumped 27% from
670,000 in 1992, the office says.

“Many young people seem to have lost motivation to get a
job,� said Hiroshi Ito, an official at the Cabinet
Office’s youth section. “We must find ways to get them
to regain motivation and return to society.�

About 425,000 had tried but failed to find jobs or enter
schools, while the other half simply made no effort to
seek economic independence, he said.

Japan’s population has grown increasingly older in
recent decades as work demands, a shortage of daycare
and the high cost of education have caused couples to
opt for fewer children, resulting in an average
birthrate of just 1.29 children per woman – among the
lowest in the world.

Demographers have predicted the population in one of the
world’s fastest-greying countries could peak at about
127.7 million next year and fall rapidly over the next
50 years to roughly 100 million.

The prospect of a declining population has caused
concern that young workers will not generate enough
taxes to care for the burgeoning number of elderly
people.

end of quotes