The younger generation is confronted by unstable employment prospects. That means many will be excluded from the workplace in the first half of their adult life, which in turn, will deny them the oppo

When Japanese politicians are more interested in keeping their political careers and not focusing on real issues,then what chance does anyone have? The generation that built Japan today is getting short changed and the young generation looking for a future can't afford a suit for an interview if they get one. If Japanese companies relocate their plants or businesses then at least employ 30% Japanese to work in those places. After all they are Japanese companies!!

China has it right, when they lend money to poorer countries to build schools, hospitals and so on, they send out Chinese construction companies to build them, where are all the materials bought to build? from China! So the money is put back into the Chinese economy. Japan needs to do something on those lines or it will never recover and unemployment will keep going up.

Share the available work so everyone can have dignity and a family. Noone should be excluded. Doors should be open for people to enter freely, not forced. If people are given the opportunity they will come to the table and do well.

Please don't let that old anachronic guy talk to young people. Even the optimistic ones would want to jump under a Shinkansen after hearing him.

I know the big sterotype of lifetime employment in Japan, but precisely, it is a stereotype, not reality. Maybe 20% of Japanese people have had the smooth "one company career" from after-war till now. All the others are not all living under cardboards in parks. There is a life outside Toyota-Matsushita. Many people change of companies and find interesting positions after a restructuration or resigning (as the kaisha life was depressing). Some change of field of activities. Actually, nearly all the really successful people I know in Osaka have "failed" at the classical big company career in the first part of their life. Losing a job at 50 can be traumatic. At 25, it's a chance to change of landscape. Some entered a smaller business, as a "second chance job", and as the company grew, they were given more responsabilities, so they are now at the top positions of dynamic businesses. Having seen several companies and getting used to unstability is huge advantage in today's world. Others have studied over years to get the degrees for a profession, and now, they are self-employed lawyers, accountants, website designers, or whatever, and their variety of experiences and habit of learning new things all the time helps them too. And I won't even list all those that created their companies. Entrepreneurs are the future of Japanese economy. The fewer they are, the darker the future. There is not much to hope from the people that got the "luck" to spend their first half of adult life as zombi employees at JAL, maintaining a sexless marriage with a stranger picked up randomly for the sake of conformism.

Even if the 20-somethings don't get many opportunities in Japanese economy, they can go to study and work abroad.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon affects the whole world. Younger generation almost everywhere suffer from a prolonged entry route into employment, low-paid and unstable jobs. Further reforms with penalties either side for companies and the unemployed people who abuse the system should be thought and implemented by governments. It remains to find good ideas. Easier said than done.

Japan has a psychiatrist? That's news! Good comment, Cos.

@Cos:

You made some valid points but there are some major differences between today and past generations.

In the past changing jobs often also meant changing living arrangements with the new living space either supplied or backed by your new employer.

It also meant being employed as a full time employee so that even if no housing was provided you could still rent.

In today's work environment Japan if closing in on the 40% mark for "hakken" work, this means that nearly 40% of the work force is now considered part time or temporary worker.

Unlike changing jobs in the past these "hakken" jobs most often do not provide housing or backing for housing, they also avoid paying pension or health insurance.

Without a full time job it is next to impossible to find decent housing and even less to get a housing loan, this is reflected by the fact that public housing is now stretched to the limit in most palaces,

Public housing was previously occupied mostly be the sick single elderly, single mothers, and handicapped but today young "hakken" adults and working elderly that cannot get housing due to their employment situation are now the fastest growing section requesting public housing.

In previous generations companies often retrained current workers who's sections became obsolete or if they needed workers for other sections, today companies hire "hakken" workers for one job in some cases for years and then when that section is made redundant they just end the "hakken" contract make a new contract with a "hakken" company for whatever new section is now created, no severance pay no unemployment insurance often not even any notice given.