scotchegg comments

Oh, dear, I sense a pedant-off. The "you"s in the last paragraph except for the last one were the generic 'one' variety, not the second person singular prononun that the last "you" is. Clear?

It's still no one's concern but their own, so long as they don't try to scrounge off welfare or charity.

Actually it's not simply their own concern. Economies need as many people to be economically active as possible to grow. Especially in a Japan facing an ageing population and diminishing workforce NEETs become a bigger problem, and men or women who are able to but simply refuse to work for no better reason than they don't feel like it are making life harder for the rest of us.

NEET is an insult? I thought it was just a description of a social phenomenon

I'll bow to your pedantry there, the acronym itself might be neutral but I meant it's used in a mildly insulting way.

So you agree that it's the man reneging on what he agreed to?

Firstly I doubt many couples actually have the discussion, and secondly it depends what you mean by "it's". You mean the cause of the problem? Then absolutely I do not think it's 100% the man reneging on what he agreed to. "It's" largely society for allowing women the freedom to make that kind of demand of other people, and then dangling the threat of never seeing their children again in front of men who try to re-negotiate.

If you're able and refuse to work simply because you don't feel like it then I highly doubt you fully appreciate the risk your husband is taking on for you, otherwise you wouldn't ask him to do it. And although I know it won't matter a jot to you, I'll continue to withhold my respect and call you a NEET. But then you wouldn't consider that even a mild insult anyway, right?

Moderator: Readers, please keep the discussion civil and focus your comments on the topic, not at each other.

Scratch that, we should just be calling them NEETS.

Absolutely they are, the ones who then also spend time on the parenting side too. They deserve admiration and respect. But the mothers juggling children and a part-time job deserve the same respect, even though they may not be bringing in as much money as the husband.

That's the point though, working mothers, whether part-time or full-time are given admiration and respect. You and tmarie had a little lovefest above about your superhuman work, and if you are getting up five times in the night with the baby you certainly do deserve respect (and probably a long chat with your husband about doing his fair share of the parenting). My point is that even mothers with a few-hour-a-day part time job are allowed by society to call themselves working mothers, as if it's remarkable that they do both. Fathers who do their fair share of the parenting (and i do agree that unfortunately there aren't enough of them) would be laughed out of the pub by men and women if they went around calling themselves working fathers and suggest they deserve the same respect that society says we should give mothers.

As for Cleo and others asking what is it to you if some women still want to be housewives after the kids reach school age, or they don't have any children at all, let me tell you what it is to me. Men who don't inherit wealth have to train and continuously work hard to live, or be homeless. Sure, most men and many women are ok with this but they always know that slacking off or not wanting to work could mean homelessness. Clearly many women think there's a third way, marry someone and get him to take all of that risk. And what's worse, according to the article almost half the women in Japan assume it's their right! What does society think of men who decide not to work and live with their parents? It describes them as a problem and invents mildly insulting acronyms like NEET for them, and sneers at them. And that's how it should be, even if the parents have no problem with it.

And as for assuming that husbands with housewives agreed to that arrangement, well even if they did when they got married I can almost guarantee that after years of giving all your salary to a woman who allows you only a bit back per month while squirreling bits away for herself, and decorating the house that he paid for with her own taste in furniture that he paid for, many guys are not happy anymore with the arrangement but have no choice but to live with it if they still want to see their kids.

It's rare that the JP media impresses me, but one thing about this article that did, is its description of housewives as NEET spouses, and for me, that's a good thing. It's about time society started frowning at them a bit more.

Although I absolutely agree that people should be honest about their future goals before marriage I also doubt that many women would openly say "I intend to be a housewife for the rest of my life" if asked, in the same way many men would probably dissemble if asked questions about future fidelity intentions for example.

Miamum - reluctant though I am to answer your ad hominem comment, I'm perfectly happy at work thankyou. But I also know that slacking will likely mean the sack, reduced employment opportunities and severe long-term lifestyle impact (extreme scenario, but seen many homeless women?).

You proudly list your CV of career woman, full-time working mother, part-time working mother etc. and certainly there is stuff to respect there. But consider this: Aren't all fathers who work, working fathers? Just because the hours I'm parenting in a week are fewer than my ex, who works part-time, does that mean I deserve the title any less? Many fathers, married or divorced, have the same arrangement, (full time work and look after the kids on weekends), but when we spend time parenting it's considered a lucky playtime that we should be thankful for, not the real 'raising' of a child that mothers do.

Especially in Japan mothers are praised for doing things that many fathers do all the time without any mention. Of course there are also layabout fathers who do bog all.

But these examples are working parents whose children are still too young to take care of themselves. As for housewives with no kids or whose kids are old enough to look after themselves, please don't describe your housework as any kind of living or job, in the same way you wouldn't describe an unemployed single man's daily upkeep of his house as his job.

As a divorcee who works long hours Monday to Friday and looks after his daughter most of the day on Saturdays and Sundays while also doing the housework and cooking in his own place, I can safely say that the pressures of doing domestic chores (be honest ladies, what is it, maximum 3 hours a day right?) and raising children, especially when they're at school for most of the day, are not a patch on the pressures the average working man or woman has to endure daily.

Is your work subject to continual appraisal and rigid standards by a boss? Is your lifestyle under threat if you slack off?

It was the same where I grew up, but especially in Japan we're told to appreciate the sacrifices and hard work of mothers while completely ignoring the far greater daily sacrifices and pressures that the fathers experience.

I've been at many family dinners where the children are asked to say thankyou to their mothers for dinner.

I've never once seen, or heard of a child being asked to say thankyou to their father for buying the food, buying the house, paying for the furniture, clothes etc...?

What is a "song stylist"?

Someone with a reasonable voice but no creativity.

A welcome gesture from the TAC but given the financial and personnel resources available to the club you can understand why some might question why it took them so long to get something together.

Wrong, we absolutely have the right to criticize people for personal choices that increased the workload for those of us who had to cover their absences, and be asked by Japanese colleagues and friends if there was anything the foreigners were being told by their governments that the population here wasn't being held. Be under no illusions, the flyjins decision to fly on their pisspoor understanding of radiology risks increased workload and stress for many of those remaining in Japan. Their 'personal choice' impacted others.

@tkoind - Just staying may not make us heroes, but it at least shows we can be relied on a bit more.

I'm fed up with this mollycoddling of the flyjin. They should be critized. They panicked and ran, basing their decision on irrational fears, not the well publicised opinions of scientists and engineers. In most cases they bolted suddenly leaving those of us who stayed having to do our own work and cover their absence. Also many Japanese here got the extra stress of wondering if the flyjin's governments knew something the JP government wasn't telling them. Then the flyjin waltz back saying "don't dare judge us, it was a personal decision"?!! Yeah, right. I guarantee that most people saying "hey dude, I don't mind", are privately quite annoyed with you.

It's how consulting works. Mildly charismatic people with letters after their names make sensational appeals to impending doom which few people have the time or money to disprove, and the unquestioning are persuaded to give the consultant vast sums of money to avoid the doom.

Seems like Oak are basically recruitment consultants though, which might explain why the reasoning is a little shallow.

Difficult to take this article seriously with so many dramatic, unsubstantiated claims.

"Anger and fear have ballooned in the last two years" Have they? Stats please.

"(one out of two firms we deal with have legal issues)" How many firms do you deal with. Two? Is this actually an increase? Legal issues pertaining to anger / labour issues or patent issues? Most big firms have legal issues at any point in time. It's why they have inhouse legal departments.

"Compassion for fellow workers is weak or non-existent." Really? Not where I work, or most of my clients if their post-quake activities are anything to go by. Any stats to support this?

"The weight that is being carried is shown by the current slowness of walking on Tokyo streets." Eh?!! Haven't seen this. Has the current walking speed been measured and compared to an average over time? Or maybe people are walking slower because it's safer with all the lights out?

"One little girl on an NHK program said it well: “ I want a job where I get lots of money and do little work.”" Hardly a wealth of supportive evidence there.

mikihouse is the only person who actually read the article. By the way does everyone know how little Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is consumed by Japan compared to the other non-issue/non-threatened Tuna species?

Well, it appears to be 80% of a species most scientists qualified to comment feel is heading for extinction.

Dolphingirl's right - they have him, they presumably have evidence, his cooperation is immaterial. Charge this twat with murder and get on with it!

He is only popular with the middle-aged.' No he isnt,kids love 'hexagon'and his forthrightness is usually much broader than that...so I really doubt you've watched enough of his programs to comment

Rot. Kids love the "talents" that are paraded before him to be the butt of his rudeness. How many kids have you seen with Shimada merchandise? And if you count his mantra "本当にバカだね、お前” as "forthrightness", just what do you consider rudeness?

As for shrewd social commentator, the odd observation that politicians should do better does not a pundit make. Next time Hexagon, or that other programme he hosts where people decide if an anecdote is interesting or not comes on, I urge you to count how many insults he throws (fat, stupid, career going down the pan, one trick pony etc.). Quite a grotty little man, and if you look at the responses to this incident on youtube, it seems many Japanese also think so.

While Shimada is a former rough guy, he is actually pretty interesting and fun to watch. That is why he is so popular. Amongst the talking heads, he tends to hit (no pun intended ;-) things spot on more often than not and does so in an entertaining and fun way. I think more of you need to give him more of a chance when you are watching TV.

He is only popular with the middle-aged. Their purchasing power is the target of the advertisers, so the networks indulge him. If, by he tends to hit things spot on you mean that when he calls someone stupid or fat they really are stupid or fat, then you may like to consider what you find entertainment.

The shinsuke bashing is because he's the worst kind of celebrity - talentless but arrogant.

Nice summary of this guy's pisspoor style josesensei. Has the clip surfaced on the net yet? Would love to show my Japanese colleagues just what a fartknocker he is.

This going through can only have helped confidence.

I like the way the article says cold calling is a waste of time, then lists preparatory steps to make you better at.....cold calling.

I'm surprised at all the cynicism. I thought recruitment consultants were skilled, principled professionals who only acted in the best interests of their candidates.