The Unemployables in Japan
I came across an interesting article about hikikomori in Japan. They are commonly referred to as the “8050 problem,” a reference to reclusive, middle-aged Japanese who live with their elderly parents. Japan has an estimated 613,000 middle-aged hikikomori. The parallel between hikikomori and Aspies seeking work after graduation is very strong. Many of the hikikomori are Japanese Aspies.
So for this reason, this article Japan’s Lost Generation Is Still Jobless and Living With Their Parents was interesting to read.
A man in his late 70s talks about his son, who since failing a college entrance exam two decades ago spends his days in his room, most likely watching TV and surfing the internet, he says. “Do you talk with him about what he wants to do in the future?” Kono asks, sitting at the table with his arms crossed. The father says they had once, but not any longer. When Kono asks if the young man has any friends, the older man answers, “None.”
As I listen, I remember a conversation in which Kono told me his father used to hassle him about getting a job, but the two of them no longer talk about the future. He told me he’s more conscious that his parents are nearing the end of their lives: His father no longer drives, and his mother’s spine is bent with age. “I’d like to get back on my feet and assure them while they are alive,” he said.
When I check in with Kono in September, he tells me the monthly gatherings he organizes were canceled from March through May because of the pandemic but resumed in June. He’s applied for several government clerical jobs earmarked for members of the lost generation. He was turned down for three and is waiting to hear back on others. He says that with private companies cutting back hiring during the Covid-19 recession, programs like these are probably his only option: “This is my last chance to reenter the society.”
It is a good article and well worth the read.
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that1weirdgrrrl
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This is very sad. I sincerely hope he is able to catch a break in the workforce. I deeply empathize with his struggle
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...what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction!
So for this reason, this article Japan’s Lost Generation Is Still Jobless and Living With Their Parents was interesting to read.
A man in his late 70s talks about his son, who since failing a college entrance exam two decades ago spends his days in his room, most likely watching TV and surfing the internet, he says. “Do you talk with him about what he wants to do in the future?” Kono asks, sitting at the table with his arms crossed. The father says they had once, but not any longer. When Kono asks if the young man has any friends, the older man answers, “None.”
As I listen, I remember a conversation in which Kono told me his father used to hassle him about getting a job, but the two of them no longer talk about the future. He told me he’s more conscious that his parents are nearing the end of their lives: His father no longer drives, and his mother’s spine is bent with age. “I’d like to get back on my feet and assure them while they are alive,” he said.
When I check in with Kono in September, he tells me the monthly gatherings he organizes were canceled from March through May because of the pandemic but resumed in June. He’s applied for several government clerical jobs earmarked for members of the lost generation. He was turned down for three and is waiting to hear back on others. He says that with private companies cutting back hiring during the Covid-19 recession, programs like these are probably his only option: “This is my last chance to reenter the society.”
It is a good article and well worth the read.
I am in the '6030' problem now - parents are 60, I am 30...I feel like nobody prepared me in school for being ready to have somewhat aging parents..
auntblabby
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@idntonkw
Primary and secondary school doesn't teach very many useful skills in life (aside from math.) They don't teach about taxes, government, and politics (they teach very little and not nearly enough), budgeting, cost of living, retirement, or any of the things you need to plan for a long successful future. High-school simply prepares a person for college, not life, which is wrong.
Aging parents though, I'd think that's a logical progression, as you get older so do your parents. It's not as if they sprung out of the ground when you turned 30 and said "SURPRISE WE'RE OLD."
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Many have ASD, but other conditions like ADHD/ADD are also common. Personally, I'm split. While the society tends to be less tolerant of "differing" people, many hikikomori are kind of exploiting the security provided by their parents. Autism existed 60 years ago too but hikikomori is a fairly new phenomenon. Telling this to hikikomori only causes them to retreat further, though, so it's kind-of pointless. More help from volunteer groups and government to relieve the burden on parents is necessary, in my opinion.
“People think of hikikomori as being lazy young people with personality problems who stay in their rooms all the time playing video games,” says Yamase, who lives with his 87-year-old mother and has been a recluse on and off for the past 30 years.
“But the reality is that most hikikomori are people who can’t get back into society after straying off the path at some point,” he says. “They have been forced into withdrawal. It isn’t that they’re shutting themselves away — it’s more like they’re being forced to shut themselves away.”
Source: The prison inside: Japan's hikikomori lack relationships, not physical spaces
There are over a million hikikomori in Japan. [The latest statistics show ~613,000 hikikomori between the age of 40 and 64. ~541,000 hikikomori aged between 15 and 39. 76.6 percent of recluses between the ages of 40 and 64 are men.]
Yamase is one of thousands of hikikomori in their 50s living alone with parents in their 80s, giving Japan a ticking time bomb that has been labeled the “8050 problem.”
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Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
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auntblabby
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Huh, I feel like I've been called out... my parents taught me about those things aside from politics, I do come from a farm and am socially awkward.
I think they should still stay as parents' job, but I suppose it kind of dooms kids who have more or less hopeless parents who can't really handle those things themselves, be it because they've made a mess of their lives or if they never learned them in the first place... or something. Expecting parents to teach these things is one of the reasons why poverty is often passed down directly to the next generation.
@Fire Blossom A reasonable conclusion
@Fnord Despite parent's being the responsible party for most of those lessons, I do think classes about government should be more pronounced in school, I mean a citizen should be able to understand how their government, since it is incredibly pertinent to them as they are a citizen of the government, if you don't know your rights you can't exercise them.
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An interesting solution: rent a sister.
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Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
• From which perspective (i.e., Anarchy, Capitalism, Socialism, et cetera) should the concept of 'government' be taught?
• How should our current government (e.g., of, by, and for wealthy white Christian males) be presented?
• How should other governmental forms be presented -- good/evil, successful/failed, or effective/ineffective?
There is more to governmental studies than rote memorization of different governmental forms.
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Interesting. What i find interesting, is both the guys in the documentary look really normal and come across as nice.
They don't come across as mad recluses either. Puzzling why they are so reclusive.
Although i guess Japanese society is a lot more structured than many others, and there is a great deal of pressure to fit in and be honourable, which you don't get in many other countries.
I guess this is one way to react to such a society.
Perhaps a lot healthier than the western alternative of taking lots of hard drugs and drinking your self to death.
They don't come across as mad recluses either. Puzzling why they are so reclusive.
I'm sure the mad cases exist too, but naturally, those ones are too far gone to give these interviews.
They don't come across as mad recluses either. Puzzling why they are so reclusive.
I'm sure the mad cases exist too, but naturally, those ones are too far gone to give these interviews.
The video might not be a representative sample
Not everything is as it appears
Not everyone is as they appear
Some are great at acting
Not everyone acts the same way all the time
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