Tag Archives: Precarious Japan

Privatization and jiko sekinin

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by Sayaka Maeda

Anne Allison analyzed the movement toward “individual responsibility” (jiko sekinin) in her book Precarious Japan. She said that the Koizumi administration went ahead with the policy: aligning with big business, privatizing more and more of government services under the banner of jko sekinin, and investing too little in social programs, including welfare, and it lead to falling worker’s wages, and increase of homelessness. She argued that Japan is already exposed to poverty.

I agree jiko sekinin has brought those negative points. Privatization causes cost cuts, and the reduced costs are labor costs. Therefore, the number of the unemployed and non-regular employment increases, or the workers may be fired, and some people lose their home, and become homeless and net café refugees. In addition, compared with state-owned companies, private companies need to seek profit. Therefore, I think there are national companies which should not privatize.

However, privatization has merits. First, it increases efficiency and productivity. In addition, the competition among companies occurs, and service and technology improve. Government’s income also increases.

Although privatization causes a lot of problems, and even if a privatized company benefits, the victims (by personnel cuts) should not exist. I think it is important to have limited government where jiko sekinin is needed, but social welfare should be assured for the right that people can live with security.

Now many of state-run companies were privatized, for example, the post office, JR (the former national railway), and some airports. Allison also talked about the Gold plan, which is the policy in which the government has shifted more responsibility to individuals and introduced measures to restructure care away from doctors and hospitals to more home-based care. These days, it is discussed whether a public nursery school should be privatized or not. By the privatization, they can increase the number of nursery schools, and receive more children, however, it becomes difficult to employ nursery school teachers for a long time.

On April 2014, the government increased the consumption tax from 5 % to 8 % to improve social welfare, for example, medical care and pensions, to address the aging population and declining birthrate. I think we have to watch whether the government properly uses our tax. In precarious Japan, I think the government should take measures as soon as possible.

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Can we live in minimum wage in Japan?

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by Misaki Kosaka

Nowadays the number of the poor is increasing in Japan. Especially, people who work as irregular workers (hiseiki koyo) have been noticeable since the deregulation of irregular jobs was enforced. However do irregular jobs make a true profit for Japan? There are workers who can’t even pay their rent because of low wages. So, they are forced to part with their home and start living at a net cafe or sleeping in the open. According to Anne Allison‘s Precarious Japan, haken or hiyatoi workers earn 6000 to 8000 yen for one day on average. They earn only wages that they can live in a day. But this wage is merely average, then their wages differ from day to day. In the day the workers receive very low payment, they can’t hardly eat in the day.

Like this, irregular jobs have very unstable and uneasy factors. Workers can’t save money to rent an apartment due to these negative factors. Furthermore, they hesitate to go to hospital when they are injured or have a high fever because they can’t afford to pay for medical insurance. Even if irregular workers are in bad condition, they have to work hard for living. In addition, most of them don’t receive any industrial accident compensation insurance when accidents happen. As a result, their health worsens and it makes them hard to get a regular job.

I think that this vicious cycle will not be solved without a governmental intervention. In the past, almost all the homeless were elderly men, but the young homeless are increasing these days. Although the young homeless without relatives who lose their job, or work as a part-time worker for a long time, may stay overnight at their friends for few days, after that they will spend night at a fast food restaurant. Then, they will put up with a net café and be finally street person. If they have relatives, they will be NEET or hikikomori.

Anne Allison says that poverty is not just a matter of economics. I think so. People who earn only minimum wage don’t get not only an economic happiness but also non-economic. As this book says, one can’t get and have kids on low wages or with a wage level that doesn’t increase as one gets older. They can’t earn enough money to support their future family.

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About denizenship and refugeeism

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Anonymous student post

Denizenship and refugeeism lead people to seek belonging. I think belonging has a good point and a bad point, so it is difficult that I decide whether belonging is good or bad. In a good point, belonging gathers people and produces a sense of solidarity, because people can share their emotions and information. When people get intimate with one another, they can get connectedness in the belonging. In other words, they can get ibasho. In a bad point, people in a belonging may have a stereotype, because belonging usually makes a specific concept. If people stick to a concept, when they know different concepts, they will have difficulty understanding them.

In current society of Japan, people have to get belonging to spend their average daily life safely. In other words, if people can’t get belonging, they can’t earn decent wages, and they are danger of life such as homeless. Generally speaking, becoming a permanent employee, or so-called seishain, connects to a safe and stable life. That is why a lot of people want to be a permanent employee.

However, for some people such as foreigners, handicapped people, single parents, furitā, and so on, it is difficult to be a permanent employee. They often work as temporary workers or contract workers. They earn a low salary, and don’t compensate social security system, so they struggle every day. In Allison’s book, Yuasa notes, ”postwar Japan bred its own form of welfare that depended on the corporation and family and organized little public welfare itself” (2013, p.58). Once you are laid off your job, you can’t come back your former status in the current society of Japan, which Yuasa describes as “sliding down society” (suberidai shakai) (2013, p.58). The gap is expanding more and more.

Under this circumstances getting belonging is finding a permanent job, because the government don’t take sufficient welfare policy, so people have to stand their own two feet. In addition, other relationship of human except work disappears. For example, you don’t know the face and name even your neighbors. In this society, people will not be able to ask for help. To avoid isolation, people are eager for belonging unconsciously, and this anxiousness sometimes people make believe a bad concept or a cult such as Aum Shinrikyou, I think.

In conclusion, your life depends on your job as Allison quotes Amamiya, “ikizurasa (hardship of life) is connected to poverty and labor issues” (2013, p.65). In my opinion, it is essential to get belonging for getting good jobs.

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If I am earning minimum wage…

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by Arisa Kato

If I work for minimum wage after I graduate from Ritsumeikan University, what I can do and what can’t I do? This answer may be different whether I live in Kyoto or Ishikawa, my home town.

If I live and work in Kyoto, I earn 773 yen per hour and get 123,680 yen for a month (8 hours per day and 5 times a week). If I were earning 123,680 yen, I would find another job to work side by side. It is because living in Kyoto means living alone for me, so I have to pay the rent and energy costs and so on.

On the other hand, I can earn 704 yen per hour and get only 112,640 yen for a month if I work for minimum wage in Ishikawa. In this situation, I may live with my family and rely on my parents of course I have no excuse. So I wouldn’t have to pay the rent. Then, I might not work two or more jobs but I may study to get some qualifications. This is because having licenses is advantageous to get next job with favorable terms and help me to succeed in getting away from poverty.

What I can say in both situations, I wouldn’t have time for doing my hobbies. I have my hands full with just living and struggling to get out of the serious situation. It is literally a life with minimum necessary. It’s possible I am discriminated against socially, and I cannot have any self-confidence. Perhaps, I wouldn’t like to meet my friends and let them know I am in terrible state because I’ll feel so misery being “losers” (makegumi) [Allison 2013, p51]. For same reason, I don’t want to be in love with someone. I know if I continue this condition for long term, I would lose many friends and “healthy and culturally basic existence” [Allison 2013, p52], which is guaranteed under Article 25 of Japanese Constitution.

This time, I imagined that how my life would be if I were paid the minimum wage. I consider that what’s the hardest things to be working poor is connection with people get weaken. Of course, living with little money is bitter, however, losing friends and other relationships is more heartbreaking. So I wouldn’t like to be a cheap laborer, and we should try to eradicate socially lonely people.

Reference

Allison, Anne. (2013). Precarious Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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There’s more than one path to success

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by Yuki Kamino

I understood Anne Allison’s way of thinking about “jiko sekinin” in this way. She says that with high economic growth, our level of life has improved a lot and Japanese people gradually put more emphasis on making money to live better. Family roles are also divided, as fathers go to a company, mothers do housework for their family, and even children have a role in that they have to go to school. In this change of society, a lot of Japanese think it ideal to succeed at school, get a secure job and find a good marriage partner. This course to better life is important to be independent and it is also an important status for Japanese people. As Allison says, this is becoming stronger in today’s atmosphere, but while some are able to walk this course, there are another who are thrown out from there. Those people feel difficulty in life (ikizurasa) and tend to become “hikikomori”.

The good points of “jiko sekinin” is that to be independent, people make a lot of effort. Thanks to their big effort, our level of life has largely improved and we are one of the developed countries. Moreover, as today is called a competitive society, we have a mutual influence on each other, so we have much expectation in the future still more.

While a competitive society give us benefits, it also brings a gap between rich people who are good at accepting themselves to the society and people who are not good at it. I think this is a result of “jiko sekinin”.

I feel that Japanese society has a model in how to be a good person or live better life is written, and a lot of Japanese believe it and are eager to follow it. I think because of the model, some successful people look down on others, and those others more and more feel “ikizurasa”.

In my opinion, we should get out of the model. Of course we have to be independent, but I think the new way can be different, depending on people. I was very surprised at the story of Chihara. He is a very famous comedian who appears in a lot of TV programs. If people know only his past that he did not go to school and confined himself in his room … they could have a bad impression of him. However, we know he makes us happy through TV, and he is loved and respected by many people. No one makes fun of him.

As we can see from the story of Chihara, there is not only one way to success. I believe we should have our own course to be independent.

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A chain of refugeeism

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by Ruri Inoue

As Anne Allison says in her book, Precarious Japan, there is a chain of “refugeeism” in the current society in Japan, that also has the another nickname, “muen shakai”. In this “muen shakai”, there are bunches of people who are literally excluded from their companies or families by being fired or abandoned, et cetera. Also, there are bunches of people who have a place of their own (“ibasho”), however, they do not feel like they belong to anywhere or anyone. I believe that “refugees” in this context could be categorized into these two groups that one is a group which physically and emotionally become lost in life due to not having a place they could belong to. In contrast, the other one is a group which emotionally suffers from the sense of lost due to their inner vision that is brainwashing them into thinking as if they are not needed or accepted by others or societies.

It could be said that the “muen shakai” is deeply tied with the unbreakable chain of the “refugeeism”, which has accidentally created some of the monster groups known as hate groups and cults as unpredicted spin-offs. For instance, there was or is a cult group called Aum Shinrikyo, which is infamous for the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. It is not too sure why each member of the Aum Shinrikyo joined it as the reason is likely to differ among the members. On the other hand, I have heard that some university students, who were struggling to find someone or somewhere they can cling to, made themselves involve into the cult group because it made them feel as if they finally found a place where they can call their own “ibasho” and anything its leader Asahara said became the truth of life to them.

“Couldn’t they have found somewhere else?”, I wonder. But it is probably a wrong question. I guess it should be like “Wasn’t there anywhere else they could find?” One of the possible reasons why they became stuck with the cult group is that they hadn’t probably known elsewhere to ask for help. In other words, the access to some institutions or groups who are experts in helping people find connections are almost invisible and hidden in this society. Honestly, I am too sure about it but at least this is how I feel about today’s society in Japan. They really need to come out on the surface, make themselves more visible, and as a result, that would possibly contribute to reduce the numbers of those who gets misled into dangerous and life-threatening communities.

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Struggling to live in Japan on minimum wage

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Anonymous student post

If I earn the minimum wage in the future, living in Japan would make me feel “ikizurasa”. As Anne Allison describes in Precarious Japan, one male contract worker is spending a hard life. He sleeps in Shinjuku station while wearing his suits. He works hard from early morning to night, but his income is very low and precarious, going from 300,000 to 105,000 yen.The temperature at night is very cold and severe for him.

Moreover, she describes how difficult it is for poor people to live in Japan. The “net café refugee” who are in other words “drifting poor” are mainly flexible or irregular workers. If they work hard from morning to night, they can earn only for one day living. Every day they just repeat this cycle. It means that they can not escape from this poverty cycle. To make matters worse, they tend to buy food which is bad for their health such as hamburger because they do not have money, so they are at risk of being sick. However, once they become sick, it means their life will end. They do not contract life insurance, so they can not go to hospital and they will be people who just wait for death.

Another aspect of earning the minimum wage is the lost identity and “ibasho”. Now I have an “ibasho” as university students by paying a large amount of money to the university, and now I have an identity from being surrounded by friends, studying subjects I am interested in, and so on. However, if I earn just the minimum wage in the future, my life will be completely changed. As I mentioned previously, there is a possibility of becoming a “net café refugee” or “homeless”. It could be said that I would not be surrounded by friends (If there are some friends, they are socially disadvantaged such as less education) or I would not buy clothes for making me fashionable, and so on. It means that it comes to be impossible for me to understand who I am and I can not stay sane. Where is my dignity? How can I live in Japan from now on?

In fact this is not my imagination but reality, and some people are forced to live in these situations.　We do not usually think about people in poverty, so reading Allison’s book was a great opportunity to think about them. I became interested in helping them through volunteering, and I think this is very important thing.

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Living on minimum wage in Japan

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by Tomomi Hosokawa

In Japan, minimum wage is about 760 yen on average (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 2013). This is low compared to other developed countries. This is one of the factors of poverty in Japan. If I must live with minimum wage in Japan, I would struggle with both physical and mental pain. For example, a woman in the book Precarious Japan is a temporary worker, and she gets less than 50,000 yen a month. She was in bad health, but she could not go to hospital. In addition, that woman could not receive welfare because she was young and seen as healthy enough to work. This is directly related to life. If I am a temporary worker like her, I will also suffer from the anxiety of losing a job. Companies usually dismiss low-wage workers like temporary workers. If I was fired, I could not rent a room and I would not have enough money to find a new job. I have no choice but to be turned adrift. In this case, it is difficult to rely on family or friends because I do not want them to know about my situation. Also, I do not want to trouble them.

Many people are suffering from this problem in Japan. How can this be solved? According to Anne Allison (2013, p.58), “Making the lives and circumstances of such people visible in and to the public is part of Yuasa’s wider agenda in his reverse poverty”. I agree with this opinion because this will be the connection to the society. If they can feel someone understand them, they will be relieved. Also, community will begin to face this problem if they notice that.

However, I believe it is the obligation of government to make the situation of such people be seen and solve the problem. This is because government is one of the factors of this. They set the minimum wage lowest in the developed countries. In addition, only the people who passed strict requirement can receive welfare. They have responsibility to share and come to grips with this problem to make the connection to the society for them.

References

Allison, Anne. (2013). Precarious Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (2013) http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/koyou_roudou/roudoukijun/minimumichiran/index.html

 

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Thinking about “jiko sekinin”

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by Yume Furumura

When we do something by ourselves, we must have the responsibility in many cases. To become a member of the society, we need “self-responsibility” (jiko sekinin).

In the book Precarious Japan, Anne Allison explains how self-responsibility was promoted by the government under Prime Minister Koizumi. In 2004, some Japanese (who were doing volunteer work) were captured by insurgents who demanded the Japanese government withdraw troops. Nevertheless, the government refused to negotiate and denounced the hostages for irresponsibly “causing Japan so much trouble”. Certainly, people who go to the dangerous places should have resolution and responsibility. However, I think that the people who were captured them must also have strong convictions. The government has to defend and act for the people in any case. I feel that the government pursued about their responsibility too much. In my opinion, the Japanese government should have respected their activities more.

I think the phrase jiko sekinin is used in a broad meaning and various situations, and to have jiko sekinin is very important to make the society well organized. For example, if politicians don’t have accountability for what they say, we cannot trust the government. Conversely, the politician whose actions correspond to his words is believed by people. Responsible people are socially acceptable. Then, the idea of self responsibility allows us to do things freely. Without permission under jiko sekinin, free-lance journalists cannot go and do they want to.

However, people sometimes cannot live with security if they are pressured by jiko sekinin. Many people are dismissed from their companies suddenly, and most of them cannot put up opposition if they are told that it is their responsibility. Now young Japanese tend to quit their jobs voluntarily, being obsessed by the thought of jiko sekinin. (In Japan in the olden days, samurai performed hara-kiri to take responsibility. I doubt that such cultures make Japanese do, throwing away their lives.)

Then, in the world, there are many things we cannot deal with by only ourselves. Allison says as follows, “In the face of encroaching precarity, greater expectations are being placed or not only the individual (under the urgency to be “self-sustaining” and individually responsible) but also the government to help people manage life.” The poor cannot live without economic support. Many people need supports of someone.

We have to be careful when we use the phrase jiko sekinin. To have responsibility is essential for making a good relationship in the society, but we must not forget that the word may put a person in a hole.

Reference

Allison, Anne. 2013. Precarious Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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Jiko sekinin? Ringing an alarm about the country

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by Minami Ichiji

“Jiko sekinin” (individual responsibility) is a word one hears a lot in Japanese society. Although, as Anne Allison (2013) points out, “Japan is at war caused by the deregulation and restructuring that have been acted as government policies”. According to Allison, “Yuasa (cofounder of the Reverse Poverty Network) sees poverty as a form of war.” Also, she says “it is a war that the state and society is waging by endangering and not fulfilling its commitment to the people－that of ensuring the right to a “healthy and culturally basic existence” that all citizens are entitled to under Article 25 of the constitution.”

After the end of the bubble economy, the Japanese government made much of a few corporations abandoning a large majority of workers. Allison explains as follows:

aligning with (and protecting) big business, privatizing more and more of (what once were) government services under the banner of “individual responsibility” (“jiko sekinin”), and investing too little in social programs, including welfare (for, but not only, the newly flexible labor force with low wages).

She criticizes severely. I am of the same mind that they must protect workers in more weak position from an impact of economic decline. Certainly, when “jiko sekinin” is used in punishing me for my wrong doing, we need to bring up the idea. But, that applies under serious mistake.

“Nevertheless these workers are accused of been lazy with few support,” from Akagi Tomohiro’s work, which Allison quotes (2013). The wrong policies are the main factor, so rather than some person who is driving forward might be punished “under the banner of “individual responsibility” (jiko sekinin)” (Allison 2013). Despite that, according to Allison (2013), Akagi says “lacking will and contributing to the lowering of the GDP” person is accused of.

In fact, the disparity between people succeeding in receiving full welfare and those who are denied or displaced is becoming bigger with continuous deregulation and restructuring. I agree with Allison’s thought that a situation that increasing number of youths engaging in irregular work is precarious as a crisis. They feel superfluous, they regard themselves as what could be replaced. Furitā or irregular work (hiseikikoyou) leads to but not only material poverty also an absence of affirming oneself. Allison states, “Japan was slipping into mud.” She rings an alarm about the country that is transforming into the land where an ordinary person could be the net café refugee.

If there were those who persist in raising the GDP, they should bring a measure that could gain confidence into effect. What the most important is supporting people to get a decent work and giving a full welfare, regardless of an employment pattern.

References

Allison, Anne. (2013). Precarious Japan. (pp.35,47,51-52) Durham, London : Duke University Press.

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