Japan's supposed 5% unemployment rate has much in common with America's supposed 9% unemployment rate ...
(snip)"TOKYO — Kenichi Horie was a promising auto engineer, exactly the sort of youthful talent Japan needs to maintain its edge over hungry Korean and Chinese rivals. As a worker in his early 30s at a major carmaker, Mr. Horie won praise for his design work on advanced biofuel systems.
But like many young Japanese, he was a so-called irregular worker, kept on a temporary staff contract with little of the job security and half the salary of the “regular” employees, most of them workers in their late 40s or older. After more than a decade of trying to gain regular status, Mr. Horie finally quit — not just the temporary jobs, but Japan altogether.
He moved to Taiwan two years ago to study Chinese.
“Japanese companies are wasting the young generations to protect older workers,” said Mr. Horie, now 36. “In Japan, they closed the doors on me. In Taiwan, they tell me I have a perfect résumé.”
As this fading economic superpower rapidly grays, it desperately needs to increase productivity and unleash the entrepreneurial energies of its shrinking number of younger people. But Japan seems to be doing just the opposite. This has contributed to weak growth and mounting pension obligations, major reasons Standard & Poor’s downgraded Japan’s sovereign debt rating on Thursday.
“There is a feeling among young generations that no matter how hard we try, we can’t get ahead,” said Shigeyuki Jo, 36, co-author of “The Truth of Generational Inequalities.” “Every avenue seems to be blocked, like we’re butting our heads against a wall.”
An aging population is clogging the nation’s economy with the vested interests of older generations, young people and social experts warn, making an already hierarchical society even more rigid and conservative. The result is that Japan is holding back and marginalizing its youth at a time when it actually needs them to help create the new products, companies and industries that a mature economy requires to grow."(snip)
from
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/wo...eneration.html
with the consequence being ...
(snip)"BLOOMBERG - More than half of young Japanese workers need to rely on support from their parents or other sources to survive, according to a government report.
Fifty-six percent of workers aged between 15 and 34 need to supplement their salaries to cover living expenses, the Labor Ministry said in a report yesterday.
The figure underscores how Japan’s young workers have been among the hardest hit by falling wages and two decades of sluggish economic growth. The unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 24 soared to 11.1 percent in June, the highest in at least 40 years and double the national average.
“Many of Japan’s youth have become part of a lost generation that can’t find full-time work or get paid the amount they deserve,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai- Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “This means more workers are missing out on the chance to gain the skills they need.”
About 94 percent of young workers earn less than 350,000 yen ($4,153) a month, the report said."(snip)
... as is now the case for an increasing number of younger Americans as well as younger Japanese, diminishing access to reasonably well paying jobs with reasonable future job security is causing ...
- young people to remain living with their parents for years or even decades because their available earnings potential cannot support independent living / starting a family at an acceptable 'standard of living'.
- older people to subsidize the day to day living costs of younger people ( albeit in Japan this is usually voluntary re family members whereas in America it is mandated via taxes and social welfare benefits / low income tax credits )
- truly talented and productive young people to seek real future opportunities in different countries
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