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Japan’s Lost Generation Is Still Jobless and Living With Their Parents
Posted
October 2, 2020
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2:03Now PlayingShut out of the employment market in their 20s, they continue to search for direction in middle age.
The doors open only once. That’s how people often describe Japan’s hidebound hiring system, in which college students have their best shot at landing a coveted salaried position in the year approaching graduation.
Those who successfully navigate the arduous corporate recruiting process will be rewarded with a secure place on the corporate ladder, along with regular raises and promotions.
The rest are largely condemned to flit from one low-paying job to the next, with little avenue for advancement and zero job security.
A decade after Japan’s bubble economy had collapsed, employers drastically scaled back new hires to protect older workers. The labor market had entered an “ice age,” according to media reports.
Those part of Japan's so-called lost generation were faced with limited job prospects, many ended up single and childless.
Japan’s 2015 census revealed there were 3.4 million people in their 40s and 50s who had not married and lived with their parents.
Japan has an estimated 613,000 middle-aged hikikomori, a term usually used to describe socially withdrawn adolescents who hole up in their bedrooms, according to the results of a government survey released in March of last year.
Among those in their early 40s, as many as one in three said they had become shut-ins because they had trouble finding or settling into a job after finishing school.
The government unveiled plans to help those who were shut out of the labor market in their 20s land full-time positions, with a goal of assisting 300,000 over three years.
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