SOCIETY-JAPAN: ‘Too Many’ Part-time Workers Worry Officials

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 13 2003 (IPS) - After years of ignoring the issue, Japan is finally seeking a solution to its growing population of ‘freeters’, or youth who prefer job-hopping instead of working hard to clinch regular jobs.

The emergence of more ‘freeters’ over the years – a word that is a hybrid of the English word ‘free’ and the German word ‘arbeiter’ or worker – reflects a willingness to break away from the restrictive work culture here and the rise of greater social freedom.

But experts say this is starting to have less than ideal effects on the Japan’s corporate culture and the economy as a whole.

”The Japanese tradition of job loyalty among employees contributed to corporate productivity and the post-war economic miracle,” explains Rieko Kosugi, researcher at the semi-governmental Japan Labour Research Institute. ”The breakup of this system needs urgent attention or Japan faces dire consequences.”

”As the economy worsened, people who became freeters in the nineties found they could not find jobs because they had no skills,” says a white paper released by the Cabinet Office’s Quality of Life bureau this May. ”If the number of freeters continue. that in turn could lower the whole economy’ s productivity and hamper economic growth.”

According to the government, there were 1.93 million freeters in 2000 from 1.01 million in 1992, with males comprising a little more than half that number.

”It’s a challenge that must be taken up by the nation as a whole,” Satoshi Noto, an official at the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry, says in an interview.

Among others, the white paper says, freeters contribute to the falling birth rate because they marry late and have fewer children.

In addition, their ranks swell the nation’s already shaky social security system because they do not pay taxes or enter the pension system – which come with the traditional corporate setting.

The document goes as far as to say the trend could contribute to rising crime in Japan given the growth of low-income groups in the future.

Last year, the government doled out 30 billion U.S. dollars in unemployment benefits to people below 29 years, up from 29.4 billion dollars in 2001.

Half that number live with their parents, and more than 70 percent earn less than 25,000 dollars annually. Typically, they are waiters, clerical workers, or staffers in convenience stores.

The growth of part-time workers, relatively new in a country where ‘work’ often means full-time work as salarymen or women, has been significant in the last decade. Statistics show that the number of part-time workers aged between 15 to 34 has almost doubled from 1.01 million in 1992 to 1.94 million in 2000 – or one in five youth .

At the same time, the number of unemployed people aged from 15 to 24 years old have also increased from 400,000 in 1992 to 690,000 in 2002, a little more than 10 percent.

These reflect the severe job situation in Japan, the result of drastic corporate restructuring over the years that has put it on par with other industrialised countries – as well as changing work attitudes by young people who find that job security is no longer enough.

In 2001, the unemployed rate in the United States for people in the same age bracket, for instance, was 10.6 percent and more than 18 percent in France.

Alarmed by these trends, the Japanese government has allocated 1.1 billion dollars for a ‘Plan for Youth’s Independence and Challenge’ project to curb the growing numbers of freeters.

A large part of the funds, to be disbursed next April, will be aimed solely at encouraging young people to take full-time jobs by teaching them skills at vocational schools.

Subjects to be taught are computer use, informational technology, biotechnology, welfare and other subjects that allow easier access to regular jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is now 5.1 percent.

This situation is a stark contrast to the bubble economy years, when college graduates were snapped up by companies.

The new plan also stipulates that youth taking the vocational training can count some of the hours as school credits, a step meant to encourage youngsters to take the courses.

Kosugi explains that a factor in the growing number of freeters is also the new attitude among youth, who increasingly do not want to work long hours or be forced to comply with rigid corporate rules.

”Japan’s new generation prefers to shop around rather than enter the corporate world, which is too demanding for them. They are different from their fathers who spent most of their waking hours in the company in return for security,” she says.

A survey by the Japan Institute of Labour illustrates this trend. Almost 70 percent and close to 14 replied they opted to become ‘freeters’ because they wanted to, or until they can find jobs that suited their lifestyles.

In many ways, the number of ‘freeters’ points to deeper changes that Japanese society needs. A new work ethic needs to be developed in Japan, Kosugi explains, one where youth are given the opportunity to switch jobs, take vacations and child care leave and be treated as individuals, not corporate slaves.

”This would be quite a departure from Japanese corporate philosophy that has relied on seniority promotion,” Kosugi says.

Manabu Natori, the founder and head of the Metropolitan Area Youth Labour Union, a labour union for freeters, says companies are also to blame for the situation because they treat freeters as ” throwaway workers” or people with no value.

”Young freeters are worried about their future given the growing unemployment rate. With more companies hiring less full-time workers, maybe this is a suitable time to talk about developing a viable career programme between the younger generation and companies,” says Natori, a freeter himself.