Tag Archives: precarity

Lack of confidence and education

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corridor in a Japanese elementary school. The ...

corridor in a Japanese elementary school. The sign says “You do not run.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: Students have been reading Anne Allison‘s Precarious Japan and are commenting how recent economic and social challenges in Japan are impacting their plans for their futures.

by Kotaro Yamamoto

Is it Japan really hopeless country? Do you have a hope in your future? According to government survey, many young people in Japan not have confidence on themselves. In 2014, Japanese government did cabinet decision about kodomo・wakamono hakusho (children・youth white paper) and it shows difference between Japanese youth and youth in some other countries (kodomo・wakamono hakusho, 2014). Survey conducted on men and women between age of 13 to 29 from 7 countries such as Japan, Korea, United States, England, Germany, France, and Sweden. About a thousand of people in each countries answered through the Internet. As the result, people who answered question that “Are you satisfied yourself?” are only 45.8% in Japan. On the other hand, other 6 countries got more than 70%. The question that “Do you have a hope in your future?” also shows same proclivity as former question, only 61.6% of Japanese youth answered as positive. However, other 6 countries got more than 80%.

Through this survey, I can’t stop worrying about future of Japan. In the future, I want to some how contribute to education especially for younger age people. I think education is very important factor through human life. However, it is difficult to change that Japanese education. I suggest that the reason why many youth in Japan have no confidence is because of Japanese education system. In Japan, many school have to follow same kind of education system. There is “juken” which is entrance exam for university. Most of junior high or high school have to do the education program only for that exam. All people who want to go to college have to get a high score to enter the good one. Japan still has an academic career-based society, so people have to enter good college to get a nice job. Many people think that to have a good life, we have to study and enter good college then get an informal appointment from big company as “Shinsotsu” (new graduate student). This system gives stop thinking as creative. They are required to find one answer so person who answered wrong will exclude.

I think this is one of the biggest reasons making atmosphere that “strange” or “different” people are eliminate from Japanese society. When I was elementary school student, I lived in America. My family was in Los Angele

s but many people treated our family member as friends. However, some of my American friends told me that Japan is closed society and sometimes feel uncomfortable because of his nationality. In the future, Japan will face more severe situation. To break through it, we have to revive confidence of Japanese youth.

Reference

Naikaku-Fu. (2014, June 3). Kodomo・Wakamono Hakusho (Children・Youth White Paper). Retrieved from http://www8.cao.go.jp/youth/kenkyu/thinking/h25/pdf/b2_1.pdf

Family, work, and security

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Note from Editor: Students are reading Anne Allison’s book Precarious Japan, and sharing their thoughts on how their own future plans are impacted by the instability and insecurity that Allison describes.

by Natsuki Ota

I hope that I will spend my life with enough money in the city, and I can have a family and a particular job with secure. Although Japan is in a precarious condition now, I would like to live with getting along with people around me. I show my future expectation from three points. First, I talk about having a family. Second, I will get a general enterprise and take a stable salary. Third, I expect relationships with people for my bright life. I desire that I get a regular job and have a connection with people including family.

To begin with, I will marry a man who can earn a stable salary in my late-twenties to thirty because I would like to work in the society, not depend on the income of my husband, and support each other in the family. And I will have up to two children because bringing up a child costs a plenty of money. It is difficult to earn enough money to take care of many children in such a bad economic condition, for example rising taxes, declining salaries. Moreover, I may have no time to take care of my children due to working, because Japan does not have sufficient circumstance that women can manage both of working and childcare. My plan almost refers to Anne Allison’s vision. “The overall social trends are away from marriage and family,” (Anne Allison, 2013, p.33) Therefore, I hope that Japan can become a society in which it is easier for women to do that in the future. If the condition is improved, the overall social trends will change for the better.

Second of all, I desire that I get an enterprise as regular worker which secures my welfare. According to Anne Allison, the wage disparity between regular and irregular employment exists in Japan. Although being hired as a regular worker is good, removing the disparity is the best. My finding a job may be difficult, as Anne Allison wrote, it is harder for youth to get a job because companies tend to hire senior workers. This is a big influence on me because I heard about my acquaintance’s hard job-hunting.

Finally, I make connections with people such as family and neighbors in order to prevent solitary death, and have my family look after me when I age. My ibasho arises in such relationship. In my opinion, ibasho is the space and place which needs me, so workplace and family is my ibasho.

In conclusion, the current Japanese unstable situation has a big impact on our future. In particular, the bad economy leads to various problems such as rising taxes, reducing wages and even family style. So I will work hard to support ny family and I hope that Japan become the place which women can more easily do both job and childcare.

Reference

Anne Allison (2013). Precarious Japan. Duke University Press. (pp. 1-42)

My future plans

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Note from Editor: Students are reading Anne Allison’s book Precarious Japan, and sharing their thoughts on how their own future plans are impacted by the instability and insecurity that Allison describes.

by Masatoshi Yamamoto

I am 19 years old now, and I will graduate from this university in three years. After graduating, I will become a member of the society. However, it is hard to be a regular worker now. There are a lot of irregular workers in Japanese society. Their life is very unstable because of their jobs. It is one of the serious problems in Japan. You can see that Japanese society is very precarious through the book, so I feel uneasy about my future.

First, I am worried whether I can get a stable job. I don’t want to change my work. The employer can discard and replace irregular workers. Therefore, I think that if I become an irregular worker, I will have to spend with the anxiety every day. I don’t know what kind of job I want to get in my future, so I cannot have an enough image of my future. However, I want to be a regular worker and have a stable life.

Second, where is my ibasho (a place of security and stability)? I think that it is my family. I feel very comfortable when I am with my family. My parents are very kind to me. Thanks to them, I could grow up, and thanks to my sister, I can enjoy with her at my home every day. Therefore, my family is very important existence for me. In my future, I also want to have my family, and it will be my ibasho. Of course, my friends are also important for me. I can enjoy my university life with them and help each other when we have problems. I think that the relationships with friends in university life are essential because the relationships will continue from now on.

Through Precarious Japan, there are a lot of serious problems in Japan such as kakusa shakai, hikikomori and muen shakai. I have never experience these feelings because I am rich in friendships and have nice family. I go to university every day and communicate with many people. My parents support my family, so I can have plenty of money. I think that I am really in a lucky circumstance. I have to appreciate for people around me, and I also think that ibasho is necessary for each person to solve the problems such as withdrawal. It will help us when we have issues. Every people should earn each places.

My Future Plan

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Note from Editor: Students are reading Anne Allison’s book Precarious Japan, and sharing their thoughts on how their own future plans are impacted by the instability and insecurity that Allison describes.

Anonymous student post

“Stability” is what I would look for in my future work. With whatever job I would have, that will be the top priority I would expect from my work. As Anne Allison points out, “stability” seems to be fading away from today’s Japanese society, in terms of economy and social relationship. Therefore, it is possible that this phenomenon will make it very difficult for me to find a job which would meet my expectation for my future career. In addition, because of this phenomenon, there is currently a serious competition in job hunting among the young generations. Certainly, I will have to be part of the job competition as a competitor in a few years and somehow I will need to find a way to get around the barrier to have a secure job. Now the question is “How?” It can be said that there is no perfect answer for the question, whereas, there are two things which I believe are very important to work on in order to answer the question.

Firstly, it is to have a few but good qualifications. I am aware that it sounds so predictable, on the other hand, my point is that I belive I should be careful not to underestimate the importance of having qualifications. At a job interview, qualifications will play a big role in representing how you can contribute to whichever company you are applying for. Without them, you would be judged as a person with no potentials to dedicate yourself to the company and a society around you, even if you are a skilled person with a strong will to utilize it for them. Hence, I appreciate how important it is to have some qualifications for myself and I have been working on this since I entered my university. I believe that being a university student gave me a privilege to have a lot of free time that I can spend on however I would like to, therefore, I consider it as a great opportunity to spend those free time on investing in myself.

Secondly, the other thing I consider is crucial to work on is to develop a communication skill. Again, this may sound predictable, however, it is one of the most important skills to enable yourself to express what kind of person you are to the others. For example, Japan, with its slow pace, seems to be transforming into a more global nation, and therefore, there are more chances for us to meet people with different nationalities and backgrounds nowadays. To be able to interact well with those who have different cultures and perspectives, I have been striving to learn about some other cultures, languages, religions, politics ,et cetera in my course. If I had proper knowledge about them, I would know how I should talk to the people in an appropriate way. Hence, the way how you communicate with people show your personality in a sense, and that is why developing a communication skill is believed to be very important.