A Nagging Sense of Job Insecurity

Book excerpt: Yūji uncovers the background of "freeters" in the 1990s Japanese economy, young people who move from one part-time contract job to another while remaining economically dependent on their parents. Social stigma was unable to solve the problem despite Japan's confusion during this "lost decade." What Yūji finds is that a combination of the industrial inability to adjust employment despite a surface performance-based system and the lack of training opportunities led to this situation.