Juventud Japonesa

Youth Employment

Newsletter of the lnstitute of Social Science, University of TokyoISSN 1340-7155

SocialScience 32

September 2005

SSJ-32 05.9.15 15:46 ページ 1

Social Science Japan September 2005

Published by:The Information Center for SocialScience Research on JapanInstitute of Social ScienceUniversity of Tokyo

Editorial Committee:Ishida HiroshiHirashima KenjiThomas BlackwoodNakamura Mayumi

DistributionFree airmail subscriptions areavailable to institutions andindividuals. Social Science Japan isalso available on the World WideWeb at:http://newslet.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Cover PhotoYoung women working at a fastfood restaurant (courtesy of theMainichi Shimbun).

Back Cover Photo Students gathered at a groupbriefing for job applicants (courtesyof the Mainichi Shimbun).

Editorial NotesPersonal Names

All personal names are given inthe customary order in thenative language of the personunless otherwise requested.Hence in Japanese names, thefamily name is given first, e.g.Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and inWestern names the familyname is given second, e.g.George Bush.

Copyright © 2005 by the Institute ofSocial Science, University ofTokyo, except where noted. Allrights reserved.

Five years after our "Young Workers in Japan" issue (April, 2000), Social ScienceJapan revisits the employment situation of young Japanese. Although theJapanese economy currently seems to be showing signs of recovery, theemployment system of Japanese youth has undergone changes since the 1980sand early 1990s, and, as Kosugi Reiko points out in our second article, economicrecovery alone will not solve the employment problems faced by Japanese youth.Genda Yuji introduces us to a new category of young person, the "NEET" (Not inEmployment, Education, or Training), and compares their situation with that of"freeters," while describing the differences between "job-seekers," "non-seekers,"and "discouraged" among the non-workers. Hori Yukie describes the nonprofitorganizations which have been established to help young people find jobs, due tothe increasing numbers of young people failing to make a smooth transition fromschool to work, and Kudo Kei, the director of one such nonprofit organization,gives us a first hand account of how they work to reach young people, especially"NEETs," and help them to reenter society. Sato Kaoru points out the importanceof taking regional variation into consideration when thinking about solutions tothe employment problems of young people. Finally, Genji Keiko shows thatgender role attitude is closely correlated with the educational aspirations and lifecourse expectations of Japanese female high school seniors. We end this issue ofSSJ with a Research Report by Liv Coleman, a visiting researcher here at theInstitute of Social Science.

With this issue of Social Science Japan we welcome three new editorial committeemembers: Professor Ishida Hiroshi, Professor Hirashima Kenji, and NakamuraMayumi. I would like to thank Ishida-Sensei, Hirashima-Sensei, and Nakamura-San for their help on this issue, as well as extend my thanks in advance for theircooperation on future issues. よろしく！

As always, if you are not a current subscriber, but would like to receive SocialScience Japan by airmail, please email us at [email protected], with thewords "SSJ subscription" in the subject box, for a free subscription.

Thomas BlackwoodManaging Editor

Contents

Youth EmploymentGenda Yuji The "NEET" Problem in Japan………………………………………………………p.3

Kosugi Reiko The Problems of Freeters and "NEETs" under the Recovering Economy…………p.6

Hori Yukie Characteristics and Problems of Youth Support Agencies in Japan ………………p.8

Kudo Kei Outreach: Helping "NEETs" Become Active Members of Society …………………p.10

Sato Kaoru The Employment of High School Graduates in Miyazaki Prefecture ……………p.12

Genji Keiko What Do Female High School Students Think of Their Futures?Educational Aspirations, Life Course Expectations and Gender Role Attitudes. ………………p.15

Research ReportLiv Coleman Social Risk, Value Change, and the Life Course: Japanese Shoshika Taisaku and Global Norms ………………………………………………p.19

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Genda Yuji


Genda Yuji is an Associate Professor of Labor

Economics at the Institute of Social Science, the

University of Tokyo

Institute of Social ScienceUniversity of TokyoHongo 7-3-1Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo [email protected]

What is a "NEET"?

In the past, when speaking of jobless young people,images of full-time housewives or students oftencame to mind. Since the 1990s, however, the numberof jobless single youths has been increasing rapidly.The Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government hasorganized a research project on youth employment,and in March 2005 issued an interim report on theproject. Since I serve as the Chairman of this project,I would like to use this opportunity to explain themain points of this report here.

The Employment Status Survey, which carefullyexamines about 400,000 households in order to cap-ture contemporary working situations, is conductedevery five years by the Statistics Bureau. Using thissurvey, we investigated the situation of people ages15-34 years old who satisfied the following condi-tions: (1) they do not attend school (high school, uni-versity, preparatory school, or professional school);(2) they are unmarried; (3) they usually do not workfor a remittance. Hereafter, the word "jobless" refers

to non-working young people who fit the aboveconditions.

The latest survey shows that the number of such job-less youths reached 2,132,000 persons nationally in2002. This number is almost equivalent to the2,090,000 "freelance part-time workers," also knownas freeter, calculated by the Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare. In 1992, just after the collapseof the bubble economy, there were only 1,307,000such jobless youths. Thus, the population of youngjobless persons increased 800 thousand or more dur-ing the so-called "Lost Decade," from the mid-1990sto the mid-2000s.

It is not only the number of jobless people, however,but their distinguishing characteristics which areimportant. Among the jobless, there were 1,285,000"job-seekers" in 2002, i.e. those who wish to work forearnings and actually search for jobs. Those unem-ployed who are represented in the labor force sur-veys conducted by the government correspondapproximately to this "job seeker" type.

In contrast, some jobless can be classified as "non-seekers." Although they may wish to work, they areoften not actually searching for jobs. Such persons,who are not counted statistically as unemployedbecause they are not looking for jobs, numbered426,000 in 2002. Finally, besides the "non-seekers,"there remain jobless youths who do not even wish towork. They can be categorized as "discouraged," andtheir number reached 421,000 in 2002.

Now, a new category of jobless young persons,called "NEET," or those who are not in education,employment or training, is attracting attention inJapan. While this term originated in the UnitedKingdom, where it describes recent school graduatesaged 16-18, the Japanese NEET includes such peopleas the "non-seekers" and the "discouraged" amongthe 15-34 year-old jobless single people. JapaneseNEETs are also distinguished from "job seekers,"who are considered unemployed. According to thisdefinition, young people falling into the NEET cate-

The "NEET" Problem in Japan

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gory in Japan reached a total of 847,000 persons in2002.

The Effects of Social Structure

One of the notable features of Japanese NEETs is thestrong correlation with educational background. Theproportion of junior high school or high schoolgraduates among jobless people is the highest forthe "discouraged" type. Next, the proportion ofjunior high school or high school graduates is clear-ly higher for "non-seekers" than for "job seekers."Those with a post-high school education account foralmost 40% of the "job-seeker" type, while juniorhigh school graduates, high school dropouts, andhigh school graduates account for 80% or more ofthe "discouraged" type of jobless youth. And, look-ing only at the "non-seekers," 78% of the college oruniversity graduates answer "I will work sooner orlater," compared to 32% of high school graduatesand 36% of junior high school graduates who say "Iam not sure if I will ever work in the future."

Therefore, jobless persons with higher educationtend to become "unemployed," in that they are morelikely to be seeking for jobs, while jobless youthswith lower education are more likely to give uptheir search for work entirely, and therefore not becounted in government unemployment statistics.

In addition to educational background, a largedecline in family income has had a serious influenceon the rapid increase in the number of NEETs inJapan. When NEETs first started to become an issue,we often heard criticism that NEETs were simply thespoiled children of rich parents, and they avoidedeven attempting to work. In fact, however, far frombeing of wealthy backgrounds, a significant numberof NEETs come from economically disadvantagedfamilies.

Granted, some NEETs do come from wealthy fami-lies; more than 20% of households with "non-seek-ers" earned more than 10 million yen/year in the1990s. However, for households living with "dis-couraged" jobless youths, the proportion of such richfamilies fell from 23% in 1997 to 14% in 2002. As aresult, in the 2000s, upper-income households havebecome less likely to generate the "discouraged" job-less youths while lower-income households havebecome more likely to produce NEETs.

The proportion of families with an annual income ofbelow 3 million yen is consistently higher for joblessyouths than for the population of 15–34 year-olds asa whole. And the share of poor families increasedremarkably for jobless youth from 1997 to 2002. Thepercentage of families with annual incomes below 3million yen was especially pronounced among thosejobless young people who could be classified as "dis-couraged" NEETs, where it has continually risen,and was expected to reach 40% by 2002.

As I explained above, the concept of NEET originat-ed in the United Kingdom. There, teenagers not ineducation, employment, or training are, at least inpart, the result of a strong hierarchical social struc-ture; i.e. jobless youths are not jobless simplybecause of a lack of work ethic, but because of asocial class structure over which they have no con-trol. Young people from disadvantaged families ordisadvantaged regions, as well as those comingfrom underprivileged classes are more likely tobecome NEETs.

In Japan, as in the United Kingdom, one's education-al attainment and family income has a strong effecton whether one will become a NEET. Young peoplewith less education and those from poor families aremore likely to end up in jobs with poor workingconditions, and are thus more likely to quit theirjobs. Such class structure, or social segmentation,evolved during the long recession, and the presenceof so many NEETs in Japan today is one outcome ofthe changing social structure in Japan in the 1990sand 2000s.

The Effects of Working Conditions

In addition to social structure, the working condi-tions in Japanese firms may have a serious influenceon the increasing number of NEETs. Regarding thereasons for giving up looking for work, many of thecurrent "non-seekers" said, "in the past, even thoughI searched, I could not find a job," or "I could notfind the kind of job I wanted." A decrease in thedemand for regular workers among youths, espe-cially those with lower education, and a rise in mis-matches between job openings and applicants,resulted not only in an increase in unemployment,but also an increase in number of NEETs.

Furthermore, many NEETs claim that they cannot


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search for jobs because they lack confidence in theirknowledge and capability. NEETs feel that they donot have the appropriate skills, such as "communica-tion skills," required for working in companies. Thislack of confidence in their working ability is anothernotable feature of NEETs.

There are also many "non-seekers" who respond thatthey cannot work because of illness or injury. Thenumber of sick or injured jobless youths increasedrapidly in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, reach-ing almost 100,000 persons in 2002. About half ofsuch NEETs with poor health conditions had experi-

enced work at least once before exiting the laborforce, and it is possible that some NEETs injure theirhealth at their workplaces, or as a direct result of theintense pressure in Japanese firms which emphasizea merit-based assessment. Although, with the dataavailable, we cannot determine the specific type ofillness or injury they suffered from, the deteriorationof the workplace environment may be a cause forthe increasing number of NEETs, and better mentalcare in the workplace should be considered animportant means of preventing the further growthof NEETs in Japan.


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Kosugi Reiko is an Assistant Research Director at

the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Train-

ing

Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 8-23 Kami-Shakujii 4 chomeNerima-ku, Tokyo [email protected]

The Japanese government has been grappling withyouth employment problems since 2003, but the Japan-ese economy is currently showing signs of recovery,and the number of companies expressing plans to hiremore new graduates next year has increased. This isnot, however, likely to end the problems of youthemployment, as the following three problems willremain: (1) opportunities for stable employment willcontinue to be limited among the less educated; (2) theincrease of freeters and NEETs in their late 20s and early30s poses generational problems; and (3) the system ofrecruitment for college graduates deprives employ-ment opportunities for youth who fail to develop well-defined career goals.

Differences in Employment Opportunities based onEducational Attainment

The term freeter refers to youth who do not findemployment as sei-shain (full-time tenured employees)and work in untenured short-term and/or part-timejobs after leaving school (either by graduation or bydropping out). 'NEET,' on the other hand, refers toyouth who do not engage in any type of employmentat all after leaving school. The term freeter was invented

in Japan in the late 1980s, while the term 'NEET' origi-nated as a policy-related term in Britain, and wasadopted by the Japanese, who transformed its meaningto fit the Japanese context. Both freeters and NEETs aredeviations from the basic school-to-work transitionmodel in Japanese society, in which students startworking as full-time tenured employees upon gradua-tion and are trained in companies to become full-fledged workers. The problems of freeters and NEETsarise from their deviated statuses from the normativemodel.

Freeters and NEETs are between the ages of 15 to 34,and exclude married women. According to govern-ment statistics, in 2002 there were about 2,500,000freeters and between 650,000 to 850,000 NEETs in Japan.Both freeters and NEETs are on the increase. An exami-nation of their background attributes based on govern-ment statistics suggests that both freeters and NEETs aremore likely to be found among those who are less edu-cated, and younger. The same trend has becomeincreasingly prominent among the "officially unem-ployed" as well.

The same problem – i.e., the fact that the younger andless educated are having increasing difficulty findingopportunities for stable employment – can be seen inmany other advanced countries as well. The transitiontowards value-added industries in the globalizingeconomy, which requires the concentration of demandfor workers with higher education, acts as a backdropto this problem. The increase in youth unemploymentobserved in many countries between the late 1970s and1980s seems to have been caused by this economic tran-sition. In Japan, however, an employment system inwhich companies trained their young employeesremained intact, and this kept Japanese youth with sec-ondary education safe from the problem of unemploy-ment during this period of industrial transition. In the1990s, however, due to the recession, industrial circlescame to limit the application of this employment prac-tice, and became more selective in hiring newly gradu-ating students. As a result, the number of youth failingin the school-to-work transition increased sharply, andthey have come to constitute the population of unem-ployed, freeters, and NEETs. Thus, the youth withoutspecialized education and the drop-outs (from high


The Problems of Freeters and "NEETs"under the Recovering Economy

Kosugi Reiko

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schools and colleges) who are deprived of sufficientsupport for the school-to-work transition are the mostlikely to face problems in the transition. Measures ofsupport which address these problems will becomeincreasingly important in the future.

Inter-generational Problems of Freeters and NEETs asthe Children of Baby Boomers

Moreover, the population of freeters and NEETs isaging. In 1992, 60% of NEETs fell within the age rangesof 15 to 24, but in 1997 60% fell within the age ranges of20 to 29, and in 2002 60% fell within the age ranges of25 to 34. In other words, as the populous dankai-juniageneration (generation of baby boomers' children)aged, the core group of NEETs aged as well. The sametendency is also observed among freeters.

During the period in which the baby boomers' chil-dren's generation experienced the school-to-work tran-sition, companies changed their policies to limit thenumber of recruits and became highly selective inrecruiting new graduates. Such bad timing, combinedwith the over-population of this generation, seems tohave caused the increase of freeters and NEETs. Thepeople of this generation, composing the 'core' of thefreeters and NEETs, have aged while remaining freetersand NEETs. There are two major problems related tothis. First is the fact that once somebody becomes afreeter or a NEET it is extremely difficult to move out ofeither of those statuses and become a full-time tenuredemployee. While Japanese companies still view newlygraduating students as the basic source of recruitments,they have come to expand their recruitment to includethose in mid-career, in their search for trained individu-als who are ready to step in as full-fledged workers.However, the targets for mid-career recruitment arethose who have work experience as full-time tenuredemployees in other companies, and freeters' experiencesas untenured part-time workers are not highly valuedby companies. In Japanese companies there is a largegap not only in wages, but also in the range of respon-sibilities between tenured full-time employees andnon-tenured employees. Thus, companies do not valuethe experiences of untenured workers highly. More-over, the evaluation of NEETs, who are not even in thelabor force, is even lower than that of freeters. SinceJapan is a society with rigid age norms, it becomesincreasingly difficult for freeters and NEETs to becometenured full-time workers after they reach their late 20sand 30s.

The second problem is that many freeters and NEETslive with their parents. NEETs, especially, pose prob-

lems since, not having their own source of income, theyare financially dependent on their parents. Since theirparents are baby boomers who will be retiring in thenear future, the time is approaching when NEETs mayend up living off their parents' old-age pensions. If theyounger generation, which is usually expected toshoulder the cost of the welfare system, stays financial-ly dependent, it could pose a grave problem. There isno time to waste before taking action to promote theindependence and employment of this young genera-tion.

The Employment System of College Graduates

The problems of college graduates' employment areless severe than those of their less educated counter-parts discussed above, but some measures still need tobe taken, although they will differ from those pre-scribed for their less educated counterparts.

Until recently, it has been common for Japanese collegegraduates to be hired for entry-level clerical or salespositions, and to move on to administrative and spe-cialized positions within companies through intra-organizational training. Thus, it was not considered aproblem if students did not have clear career goals orspecializations at the time of entry. Companies devel-oped intra-organizational training systems which pre-supposed such insufficiencies of young employees. Inrecent years, however, the number of students going tocollege just to avoid the difficulties of the job search atthe level of secondary education, or to postpone careerdecisions, has increased. An oversupply of collegegraduates has increased competition for employmentamong college graduates. In addition, students havebecome less likely to seek support from job-placementservices provided by colleges, since they can obtaininformation directly from organizations through theinternet. Moreover, the timing of the job hunt has beenmoved forward, and has come to begin as early as ayear and a half before graduation. These factors posedifficulties for college students' job search, and anincreasing number of college students and graduatessimply quit job-hunting midway through the process,and choose to become unemployed or freeters, statingthat they do not know what kind of work they want todo. It is important to help these college students devel-op well-defined career goals. It is also important toexpand the boundaries of the college level employmentsystem (which now only accepts job applications fromthose who are still in college), to accept job applicationsfrom those who have already graduated from college aswell.


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Hori Yukie is a Researcher at the Japan Institute

for Labour Policy and Training

Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 8-23 Kami-Shakujii 4 chomeNerima-ku, Tokyo [email protected]

Until recently, there have been very few public agen-cies in Japan providing support for those who havefailed in the school-to-work transition. This is large-ly because, after World War II, Japanese youth facedfew problems in finding stable employment aftergraduation from schools. Recently, however, highrates of youth unemployment, and increasing num-bers of freeters (young part-time workers) havebecome more conspicuous. Youths' inability to findstable employment deprives them of the opportuni-ties to form social networks and to accumulate occu-pational skills. It is also feared that this may poseproblems for Japanese society at large, since it candecrease Japan's international competitiveness andincrease social insecurities. As a countermeasure tosuch problems with youth employment, last yearthe Japanese government's "Strategic Council forYouth Independence and Challenge" (wakamono jirit-su-chosen senryaku kaigi), consisting of four cabinetministers from the Ministry of Health, Labour, andWelfare (koseirodosho), the Cabinet Office (naikakufu),the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (keiza-isangyosho), and the Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology (monbukagakusho),announced its "Plan for Youth Independence and

Challenge" (wakamono jiritsu-chosen puran). In thefirst three years, the goal of the plan is to reverse thecurrent trend of increasing numbers of unemployedyouth and freeters.

One of the selling points of the "Plan for Youth Inde-pendence and Challenge" is the Job Café. Job Cafésare all-inclusive support centers for job-huntingyouth, established (primarily) by public agencies,such as local self-governing bodies. The youth whovisit Job Cafés are provided with various services,including information on job vacancies, employ-ment placement services and on-the-spot job consul-tation.

In addition to these services, which are common toJob Cafés throughout Japan, some Job Cafés havecharacteristics particular to their region, since thecontent of services are decided by local staff. Forinstance, in Job Cafés in Gunma prefecture, a non-profit organization mainly consisting of youth pro-vides services called "Support for Youth by Youth."Although specialized support, such as job consulta-tion and job placement, are provided by entrustedprivate enterprises, youth from the NPO providehelp as receptionists and guides at the Job Cafés, aswell as make plans for seminars and work on publicrelations. The youth hold attendant meetings once amonth, and submit proposals and ideas forimprovements for Job Cafés to the staff members,and the staff members often incorporate the propos-als and ideas in the services of their Job Cafés.

In 2004, the Japan Institute for Labour Policy andTraining conducted interviews with nine supportagencies. This study pointed out three problemswhich were shared by public youth support agen-cies such as Job Cafés and Career Centers (JapanInstitute for Labour Policy and Training, 2005). First,most Job Cafés are required to achieve a target num-ber of service users. According to the staff at JobCafés, however, reaching the target figure tends tobecome an objective in itself, and consequently, theydo not have enough time left to reach out to thosepotential users who really need support, but who

Characteristics and Problems of Youth SupportAgencies in Japan

Hori Yukie

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haven't yet visited a Job Café.

Second, most Job Cafés struggle with public rela-tions, and put great effort into advertisements, toinform as many youth as possible of their services.Job Cafés advertise their services in a variety ofways, such as on television and radio, and by plac-ing free fliers and free small tissue packets withfliers at bars and convenience stores. The CareerCenter in Okinawa asked high schools to distributesmall cleaners for cellular phones (which mostJapanese youth own) to students at the time of grad-uation. Since contact information for the Career Cen-ter is printed on those cleaners, if the youth attachthe cleaners to their cellular phones, they will knowwhere to seek help when they need it. However,there are few prefectures like Okinawa, in which thecooperation between youth support agencies andschools are truly functioning.

Third, the provision of support for youth who haveproblems other than employment-related, such asmental health problems, has emerged as a new chal-lenge to be addressed. For instance, although youthwith mental problems need help from specialists,

ordinary support agencies do not have mentalhealth specialists among their staff members. Therange of psychological problems which can be dealtwith by Job Cafés is limited. Furthermore, coopera-tion across support agencies such as local Job Cafésand NPOs is rather limited.

Problems related to public relations and advertise-ments, as well as support for youth with mentalproblems, are among the problems which cannot besolved by the efforts of a single youth supportagency. It will be a major challenge to create a sys-tem in which a youth struggling with a problem willreceive appropriate support regardless of the sup-port agency he or she visits. Youth support in Japanhas reached a phase where the formation of net-works among the various youth support agencies,including schools, has become necessary.

ReferenceThe Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training.

2005. "Wakamono Shugyo Shien no Genjo toKadai" (The Situation and Problems of YouthEmployment Support Agencies). Tokyo: JILPTResearch Report No. 35.

SSJ-32 05.9.15 15:46 ページ 9


Kudo Kei is the Director of Sodateage Net, a

special nonprofit organization dedicated to coun-

seling and training young people for participation

in society and economic independence.

Sodateage NetSeikatsukan Bldg. 3F2-9-22 Takamatsu-choTachikawa-shi, Tokyo 190-0011email: [email protected] site: http://www.sodateage.net

No matter how hard we try to provide information tohelp NEETs reenter society, it is rare for them to visitsupport facilities on their own initiative. Are NEETsinactive even when they know where to find help, orare they inactive because the information they needdoes not reach them? People who think it is the formerargue "we should not have to support young peoplewho do not have the willpower to change their situa-tion," while those who believe the latter argue that"NEETs will become active once they know where tofind help, so it is important to disseminate as muchinformation as possible." As the Director of a supportgroup for NEETs, however, I think that neither viewaccurately reflects the true situation of NEETs.

At my organization, there are currently 40 NEETsundergoing training to reenter the workforce or someform of schooling. An analysis of their reasons fordeciding to come in reveals some very interesting find-ings. In order to participate in training, applicants mustfirst receive counseling and complete a two-day trial

training session. Since the establishment of this pro-gram 10 months ago, we have responded to more thantwo hundred requests for counseling. However, 70% ofthese requests have actually been from the mothers ofNEETs, not the NEETs themselves, and an additional20% were made by mothers accompanied by theirNEET children. Only 10% (or fewer) of the requests forcounseling have been made by the NEET individualsalone, and almost no fathers of NEETs come in for con-sultation.

On the basis of these numbers alone, it may appear thatNEETs themselves have little interest in counseling ortraining – instead, the problem seems to be primarilymothers worried about their children. In fact, however,although most of those who come in for counseling arethe mothers of NEETs, about half of them were askedto come in by the NEETs themselves, to learn suchthings as what goes on in training or the kind of staffwe have. NEETs also want to know what kinds of peo-ple actually receive training, including things like theirsex and ages, to determine whether they will be able tocomfortably participate in training. Therefore, in manycases the NEETs ask their mothers to come in and con-duct a preliminary investigation before coming inthemselves.

When we ask NEETs how they learned about our orga-nization, 80% reply that they heard about us from aparent (invariably the mother). After first learningabout us from a parent, they then look for more infor-mation about our organization using the internet andother sources. Thus, although it is extremely rare forsomeone to investigate without first hearing some use-ful information, NEETs will investigate further oncethey hear about us. The fact that most NEETs do notactively seek help without first hearing about an orga-nization is part of the reason that they have not beenconsidered among the ranks of the unemployed inJapan.

From our data, then, we can see that if people in theNEET category are given the right information, theynot only have the desire to change their situation, theyactively work towards changing it. However, as most

Outreach: Helping "NEETs" Become ActiveMembers of Society

Kudo Kei

SSJ-32 05.9.15 15:46 ページ 10


have no social affiliation outside of their family, NEETsreceive almost all of their information of the outsideworld through their family. Because, historically, threegeneration households have been the norm in Japan(although the recent trend is moving towards thenuclear family), there is little sense of incongruity inhaving adult NEET children living "parasitically" in thehome. I think that this three generation-householdnorm has also helped to keep the number of homelessyouth relatively low in Japan, compared to the West (inaddition to the fact that Japanese families have beenable to maintain the economic resources to supportadult children).

I believe that the fact that the family acts as the primarysource of information for NEETs is the key to providingsupport for NEETs in Japan. Of the estimated 850,000people who fit the NEET category, a large majority liveunder the support of a parent. Thus, although NEETsare beyond the age of compulsory education and haveno other social affiliation, their whereabouts are knownby their families. Last year, when I visited Great Britainand explained the situation of Japanese NEETs, I wastold, "We envy you, because you have at least one wayto reach the NEETs." Although I did not immediatelyunderstand why my British colleagues were so enviousof the Japanese situation, upon consideration I realizedthat when we offer support at our organization, mostoften information first reaches the NEETs through theirfamilies, and the NEETs begin acting on the basis ofthis information. Without the family, we would have noway of making this initial contact.

Next I would like to discuss the process through whichNEETs decide whether to participate in the trial train-ing session, once they have received information from afamily member and come in for an initial consultation.The actual percentage of those receiving consultationwho go on to participate in the trial training is about50%; not a low number, but not necessarily high, either.The following are the most common reasons thatNEETs give for not coming in for training:1) Even after getting information from a parent, they

are not interested;2) They do not find the training program appealing;3) They feel very uneasy about participating in train-

ing;4) They feel that they will be judged as "defective" peo-

ple by those around them if they participate in train-ing.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for a support organizationto respond to the first two reasons, without furtherelaboration. We can, however, take certain measures torespond to numbers (3) and (4). First, to help calmNEETs who feel uneasy about participating in the train-ing program, we have established a system wherebywe go to them rather than making them come to us.Before asking them to come to our organization, one ofour staff members will go to a NEET's desired meetingplace at the desired time, and first work on building arelationship. Since we learn in advance about the per-son's hobbies and inclinations from their parent(s), it iseasy to adapt to their conversation, and we can getthem to open up relatively quickly. After such visits, ifthey do decide to come to the trial training program,often it is because their perspective has changed;instead of thinking: "I'm going to participate in thattrial training program," they begin thinking: "I'm goingto meet the person I met the other day," and this greatlymitigates their feelings of unease.

One way we help to minimize the feelings of shameinvolved in (4) is by giving advice to the parents whocome in for consultation, regarding how to tell theirchildren about the program. If the parents only telltheir children that our organization "was such-and-such kind of place, and they did such-and-such kind oftraining..." the NEETs are not likely to respond. First, itis necessary to relieve them of their psychological bur-den. NEETs feel ashamed that they must ask for help inthe first place; their sense of pride is offended. There-fore, we tell parents to start by saying, "I promised themthat you would come in for a trial training programwhen I went in for the consultation..." It is very impor-tant for the parent to make it appear like a sincererequest. This way, the NEETs can tell themselves that "Iam not going to the training program because I want togo, I am only going because my parent promised that Iwould go, so it can't be helped." If NEETs can feel thatit is not for their own sake, but for the sake of their par-ents, and they can maintain their sense of pride, itbecomes easier for them to take the first step.

Finally, about 90% of the NEETs who participate in ourtrial training formally register and complete the pro-gram. Considering these statistics, it is clear that out-reach programs like ours can play a major role in help-ing NEETs make the move towards reentry into societyand economic independence.

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Sato Kaoru is an Associate Professor of Sociology

at the Institute of Social Science, the University

of Tokyo


According to the Gakko Kihon Chosa (basic school sur-vey), in March 1994, the rate of Japanese high schoolgraduates who went on to college was 36.1%, therate of those who found employment right afterhigh school graduation was 27.7%, and the rate ofthose who went on to senmon gakko (schools for tech-nical education) was 16.6%. In contrast, in March2004, the rate of high school graduates who contin-ued their education in college was 45.3%, the rate ofthose going on to senmon-gakko was 19.2%, and therate of graduates who found employment right afterhigh school graduation was 16.9%. In the past tenyears, then, the rate of students going on to senmongakko has surpassed the rate of students enteringemployment right after graduation.

While this phenomenon may be related to changesin the education system caused by the decreasingeighteen-year-old population, we cannot overlookthe fact of the shrinking labor market for new highschool graduates, or the substitution effect of educa-tional credentials (that is, due to credential inflation,credentials from higher educational institutions

have come to substitute for the role of high schoolcredentials). Furthermore, the changes in pathstaken by students after high school graduation haveincurred changes within high schools themselves.For instance, job-hunting is mediated by high schoolofficials who introduce (and recommend) jobs tograduating students. This recommendation systemis a part of shinro-shido (course guidance), and is con-sidered a part of the regimen of education (i.e that ofcontrolling and disciplining students). In this sense,the drop in the rate of students seeking employmentafter graduation is considered the responsibility ofthe high school education system.

Another difference between high school graduates'employment and college graduates' employment isthe impact of regional differences. Since high schooleducation is under the jurisdiction of prefectures,and the employment of high school graduatesdepends more largely on local companies than thatof college graduates, the paths taken by high schoolgraduates present more eminent regional variationthan the paths taken by college graduates. In fact,the rate of employment of new high school gradu-ates which was presented at the beginning of thisarticle – 16.9% – is a national average, and there areconsiderable regional variations across prefectures –from 31.3% in Miyazaki prefecture to 6.8% in Tokyo.There were only two other prefectures in which theemployment of high school graduates reached 30%,Aomori prefecture and Akita prefecture (in both pre-fectures, the employment rate of new high schoolgraduates was 30%).

Why does the employment rate of new high schoolgraduates in Miyazaki prefecture remain so high?This question led us to visit Miyazaki prefecture andconduct interviews in March, 2002. Our interviewsubjects were members of the board of education,the public employment security office, and four highschools, which we called A, B, C and D. In this arti-cle, I would like to present the characteristics of highschool education and course guidance in Miyazakiprefecture, based on findings from our interviews.

The Employment of High School Graduatesin Miyazaki Prefecture

Sato Kaoru

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A major characteristic of high school education inMiyazaki prefecture is the course composition. Dur-ing their expansion process under the new system(which began in 1948), high schools have consistent-ly increased the percentage of futsu-ka (generalcourses, as opposed to senmon gakka, or specializedcourses). In recent years, three out of four highschool students have graduated from the generalcourse curriculum. This, however, is a national aver-age, and there are large regional variations. Forexample, while the percentage of general courses ishighest in Kanagawa prefecture, where it is close to90%, the percentage of general courses has beenkept relatively low in Kyushu prefecture. In Miyaza-ki prefecture especially (which is located inKyushu), the percentage of general courses in theearly 1970s was in the 30s, and although the percent-age increased slightly afterwards, the percentageremains in the 40s. The percentage of general cours-es in Miyazaki high schools in 2004 was 43%, thelowest in Japan.

According to research conducted by the board ofeducation of Miyazaki prefecture, more than half ofjunior high school students in Miyazaki wish toenroll in senmon gakka (specialized courses) in highschools (rather than general courses). The officials ofthe board of education stated, "The general coursesare only viewed as preparation for college entranceexaminations. That may explain why junior highschool students avoid general courses in highschools," and "students do not choose general-course high schools even if the employment situa-tion (for high school graduates) is severe." Theyclaimed that in Miyazaki prefecture, the general-course high schools aim at preparation for collegeentrance only, and for students to enjoy a 'free-spirit-ed' high school life, it is considered better to choosea specialized-course high school. Finally, althoughthe majority of the graduates of specialized-coursehigh schools continue to find employment (rightafter graduation), the rate of college attendance ofsuch students is increasing.

In Miyazaki, among the different types of courses,the most popular is the commercial course curricu-lum (a type of specialized course curriculum), andthe second most popular is the engineering coursecurriculum (another type of specialized course).While 49.0% of the graduates of the commercialcourse curriculum find employment upon gradua-

tion, 57.0% of the graduates of the engineeringcourse find employment at graduation.

The high school graduates of Miyazaki prefectureare distinct not only in their high employment ratesin general, but also in their high 'out-of-prefecture'employment rates. Of all the prefectures in Japan,the prefecture with the highest rate of students find-ing employment outside of their own prefecture isNagasaki (41.3%), and the prefecture with the sec-ond highest out-of-prefecture employment rate isMiyazaki. The fact that prefectures such as Saitamaand Chiba, which are located next to Tokyo andhave easy access to out-of-prefecture employmentopportunities in Tokyo, have only 28.2% and 24.4%out-of-prefecture employment rates respectively,indicates that Miyazaki's out-of-prefecture employ-ment rate is exceptionally high.

In Miyazaki prefecture, where the majority of localcompanies are smaller enterprises, organizations donot necessarily conduct well-planned employeerecruitment. "Even after they start recruiting stu-dents, if their business goes sour even a little, theyabort the recruiting process. There are many compa-nies like that" (B high school). "The large companiesoutside of the prefecture start recruiting exams inSeptember. If you do not have any job offers fromlocal companies by that time, there is no guaranteethat you will get an opportunity for recruitment(from local companies) in the future. Thus, you haveto go outside of Miyazaki prefecture (to findemployment)" (Miyazaki Prefectural Board of Edu-cation). Recently, the number of high school stu-dents seeking out-of-prefecture employment hasdecreased, however. There are several possibleexplanations for this, such as the decreasing numberof children, which makes parents more reluctant tosend their children away from home, and the equal-ization of income levels across prefectures, whichmakes out-of-prefecture employment less attractive.Anyway, the tendency for high school students inMiyazaki to seek local employment seems to beincreasing.

In such an environment, what are the characteristicsof course guidance in Miyazaki prefecture? In a nut-shell, Miyazaki high schools, in cooperation with theMiyazaki Board of Education and the publicemployment security office, offer scrupulouslyattentive course guidance through three main

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means. The first is through the active appeals ofhigh schools to students and their parents. Miyazakihigh schools begin their course guidance in fresh-man year, when they offer mock job entrance exami-nations to students who indicate a desire to seekemployment after graduation. Furthermore, theyask parents of students expressing a desire to attendcollege to prepare financially for future college costs.

The second way is through follow-up course guid-ance, conducted through the cooperation of highschools with the board of education, which contin-ues until June – well after the end of the school year.In other prefectures, course guidance usually ends atthe end of the school year (in March) when studentsgraduate from high schools. In Miyazaki, however,it is taken for granted that course guidance will con-tinue well after seniors have graduated.

The third way is through offering students a shokubataiken jyugyo (a class for job experience). This is partof an attempt to increase students' shokugyo ishiki(aspirations for and understanding of occupations),and to reduce mismatching between students' aspi-rations and companies' demands. This system hasbecome available under the close cooperation of thepublic employment security office with highschools.

In addition to the above three, there are other effortsas well. The Prefectural Board of Education exercisesinfluence over local companies, not only to securelocal job offers, but also to coordinate the timing ofrecruitment. Individual high schools try their best toobtain job offers from local companies - especiallyfrom those which have previously hired their gradu-ates. Specialized-course high schools encouragetheir students to go on to higher education if theeconomic conditions of their family allows it, andprovide those students with attentive guidance forcollege attendance.

The youth employment environment is currentlyquite severe, and high school graduates' entranceinto the labor market has become especially difficult.Currently, various means of help are available, butin order for such means to be effective, we need tounderstand the problems more clearly. As we haveseen in this paper, the high school graduate employ-ment environment varies across regions, and theproblems to be solved also vary across regions. Inrecent years research on the employment of highschool graduates has been increasing rapidly, butmost of it focuses on employment in metropolitanareas only. In order to grasp the whole picture, how-ever, more research which takes regional differencesinto consideration is necessary.

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Genji Keiko is a Research Resident at at the Insti-

tute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo


The Expansion of Women's Higher Education andWomen's Participation in the Labor Market

Does the attainment of higher education increasewomen's work opportunities? In 1969, Japanesewomen's rate of advancement to high school (79.5%)exceeded that of Japanese men (79.2%), and thistrend has continued to the present. In 2004, the rateof advancement to high school reached nearly uni-versal levels for both sexes (96.7% for women, 96.0%for men). At the level of higher education, however,there have been sex differences. Until recently, theincrease in men's higher education was primarily atthe university level, and the increase in women'shigher education was at the junior college level. In1996, however, women's rate of advancement to uni-versity exceeded that of junior college. Moreover, inrecent years, there are increasing numbers of womengoing to senmon gakko (specialized two-year trainingschools oriented towards the acquisition of voca-tional skills [Brinton & Lee, 2001]).

On the other hand, the rate of women's labor forceparticipation shows a gentle upward trend until

1991, after which it shows a gentle downward trend.Furthermore, although the bottom of the M-shapedcurve of female labor force participation by agegroup has risen, the M-shaped pattern is still clear,and this differs from Western industrialized coun-tries. Although the rate of female labor force partici-pation by education level shows that the participa-tion rate of university-educated women is higherthan that for other women, it is still lower than thatof women in Western industrialized countries.

The Youth Labor Market

In recent years in Japan, it has become increasinglydifficult for high school graduates to find employ-ment, and the number of high school graduates withneither job nor postsecondary education hasincreased. The unemployment rate among youngpeople is especially high, and the number of youngpeople entering the labor market as non-regularworkers has increased, reaching 28.3% for new malehigh school graduates and 38.6% for new femalehigh school graduates.

Women's Educational Attainment and Occupation-al Attainment

Highly educated women have higher occupationalaspirations, because a higher level of educationmutes the belief in traditional gender roles (Amano,1986). Therefore, the proportion of highly educatedwomen who continue to work after marriage is high(Imada, 1985). At the same time, however, manyhighly educated married women choose to not par-ticipate in the labor force (Ministry of Labor, Japan,1991). Thus, highly educated married women can bedivided into two types, one type being those whowork before and after marriage and the other beingthose who become full-time housewives after mar-riage (Higuchi, 1991). In the case of female highschool students, those who disagree with traditionalgender roles have higher educational aspirationsthan those who agree with them. Moreover, the stu-dents who plan to continue their work after mar-riage also show a higher rate of university advance-

What Do Female High School Students Think of Their Futures? EducationalAspirations, Life Course Expectations and Gender Role Attitudes

Genji Keiko

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ment (Kimura, 2004).

Educational Aspirations, Life Course Expectationsand Gender Role Attitudes

What do young people think of their futures underthe present circumstances? How do gender role atti-tudes contribute to female students' educationalaspirations and life course expectations? How doeducational aspirations contribute to female stu-dents' life course expectations? By examining therelation among educational aspirations, life courseexpectations and gender role attitudes, this paperexplores these questions, based on data collected ina social survey on the lives of high school studentsconducted by the University of Tokyo's Institute ofSocial Science in 2004.

Regarding the educational aspirations of female stu-dents, 35.8% indicate that they wish to attend a uni-versity, 13.6% wish to attend a junior college, 23.3%wish to attend a senmon gakko, and 20.9% plan to geta job. Thus, most indicate that want to get a highereducation. Furthermore, almost half of the femalestudents (49.6%) said that they planned to leave thelabor force upon marriage or childbearing, and reen-ter the labor force when they no longer need to carefor their children; 32.0% replied that they wouldcontinue working after marriage or childbearing;10.4% said they would withdraw from the laborforce altogether; and 8.0% answered that they havenot yet decided. Finally, regarding gender role atti-tudes, it seems that the traditional gender role atti-tude, assuming men should be the primary bread-winners and women the primary caregivers, isweakening among female students, as 89.2% offemale students disagreed with this attitude, andonly 10.8% agreed.

For the relationship among educational aspirations,life course expectations and gender role attitudes,see the data below (Figures 1–3). First, Figure 1shows educational aspirations by gender role atti-tude. Of the students who expect to attend a univer-sity, there is an 8 point difference between those whoagree with the traditional gender role attitude(29.1%) and those who disagree with the traditionalgender role attitude (36.8%). On the other hand, ofthe students who expect to get a job upon gradua-tion from high school, there is a 10 point difference

between those who agree with the traditional gen-der role attitude (29.1%) and those who disagreewith the traditional gender role attitude (19.9%).These results show that educational aspirations dif-fer according to gender role attitude.

Second, Figure 2 shows life course expectations bygender role attitude. The proportion of studentswho think their career will be temporarily interrupt-ed at the time of marriage or childbearing (yetintend to reenter after their children are older) issimilar on both sides of the gender role attitudequestion. But 33.9% of the students who disagreewith the traditional gender role attitude expect tocontinue working, in contrast to 18.0% of the stu-dents who agree with the traditional gender roleattitude. And far fewer students who disagree withthe traditional gender role attitude expect to retirefrom the labor force at the time of marriage or child-bearing than students who agree with the attitude(8.8% compared to 23.7%). These results show thatlife course expectations are affected by gender roleattitude.

Figure 1. Female High School Students' Educational Aspirationsby Gender Role Attitude. (agree = agree with tradition-al gender role attitude)

Figure 2. Female High School Students' Life Course Expectationsby Gender Role Attitude. (agree = agree with traditionalgender role attitude)

SSJ-32 05.9.15 15:46 ページ 16


Third, Figure 3 shows life course expectations byeducational aspiration. The students who expect toget a job soon after they graduate high school are byfar the most likely to respond that they intend toretire from the labor force at the time of marriage orchildbearing. Furthermore, many more studentswho intend to go to a university or senmon gakko,compared with the other types, want to continueworking. While junior college and senmon gakkoentail the same number of school years (two), thisdifference between junior college applicants and sen-mon gakko applicants regarding life course expecta-tions suggests that attending a university andattending a junior college hold different educationalmeanings, even though they are both said to be"higher education."

These data were also analyzed by a multinominallogit model, which can deal with categorical vari-ables as dependent variables, to explore the determi-nants of life course expectations (Table 1). Theresults show that holding the traditional gender roleattitude has a significant effect on life course expec-tations, that is, a negative effect on a student's expec-tation of staying in her job, and a positive effect on astudent's expectation of retiring from the labor forceat the time of marriage or childbirth. Educationaffects life course expectations differently. Only edu-

cational aspirations of attending junior college orcompleting high school have a significant positiveeffect on job interruption.

Twenty years have passed since the Equal Employ-ment Opportunity Law was established, but sex seg-regation in the labor market still exists. Moreover,there is substantial evidence that the occupationalaspirations of young people are highly sex-typed,which reflects the sex segregation of the labor mar-ket. Despite the increase in highly educated womenand the fact that many Japanese women do notagree with the traditional gender role attitude,almost half of Japanese female high school studentsexpect that they will leave the labor force upon mar-riage or childbearing, and then reenter the laborforce when they no longer need to care for theirchild, and gender role attitudes affect both theireducational aspirations and life course expectations.In this connection, there remain considerable num-bers of young men and women who hold to the tra-ditional gender role attitude, and resign themselvesto the duties in line with this attitude (Taga, 2005).Furthermore, some women have recently begunexpressing a "Shin Sengyo Shufu Shiko" (an orienta-tion to a new type of housewife), that is, they desireto share childcare with their husbands but to main-tain the status of the "male-breadwinner" model,and to try to achieve self-realization through ahobby or odd job (Ministry of Health and Welfare,1998). When the position (or status) of women in thelabor market changes, will the link betweenwomen's education, especially at the universitylevel, and their labor force participation change? Amarried woman's decision about her labor force par-ticipation is not only a reflection of her own genderattitude but also a reflection of the family's demandsof her (Yu, 2001). Thus, we must reconsider women'slabor force participation as not only an issue forwomen, but for men as well.

Figure 3. Female High School Students' Life Course Expectationsby Educational Aspiration

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References

Amano Masako, ed., 1986. Joshi Koto Kyoiku no Shiza(The Viewpoint of Higher Education for Girls),Tokyo: Kakiuchi Shuppansha.

Brinton, Mary C. & Lee, Sunhwa. 2001. "Women'sEducation and the Labor Market in Japan andSouth Korea," in Brinton, Mary C. (ed.),Women's Working Lives in East Asia, Stanford:Stanford University Press, pp. 125-150.

Imada Sachiko. 1985. "Josei no Shokugyo Keireki toKyoiku Tassei" (Women's Occupational Careerand Educational Attainment), in KyoikuShakaigaku Kenkyo (The Journal of EducationalSociology), 40: pp. 50-64.

Kimura Kunihiro 2005. "'Josei ni totteno Gakureki noImi' Saiko: Kyoiku, Shugyo, to Seibetsu YakuwariIshiki no Kanren no Jikeiretsutekihikaku" (A Reex-amination of the Meanings of EducationalAttainment for Women: A ComparativeAnalysis of the Relation between Education,Employment, and Gender Role Attitudes) in

Katase Kazuo, ed., Kyoiku to Shakai ni TaisuruKokosei no Ishiki: Dai 5ji Hokoku-sho (Thoughtsof High School Students and Their Parents:Report on the 5th Survey), Tohoku DaigakuKyoiku Bunka Kenkyukai (Research Group forEducation and Culture, Tohoku University),pp. 57-70.

Ministry of Labor, Japan. 1991. Rodo Hakusho (WhitePaper of Labor).

Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan. 1998. KoseiHakusho (White Paper of Health and Welfare).

Taga Futoshi. 2005. "Posuto Seinen-ki to Jenda" (Post-adolescence and Gender), in Kyoiku ShakaigakuKenkyu (The Journal of Educational Sociology),76: pp. 59-75.

Yu, Wei-hsin. 2001. "Family Demands, Gender Atti-tudes, and Married Women's Labor Force Par-ticipation: Comparing Japan and Taiwan," inBrinton, Mary C. (ed.), Women's Working Livesin East Asia, Stanford: Stanford UniversityPress, pp. 70-95.

Table.1 Determinants of Life Course Expectations

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Research Report

Liv Coleman is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Sci-

ence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and

a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Social

Science, University of Tokyo


With the total fertility rate falling to 1.29 in 2003,Japan is undergoing a major demographic transi-tion, prompting policymakers and social commenta-tors to debate the future of Japanese society, givenpredictions of a declining labor force, falling GDP,negative economic growth, and waning nationalpower. Policy responses to boost the declining birthrate, shoshika taisaku, have centered on expanding thenumber and hours of daycare centers, allowing citi-zens to achieve an appropriate work-life balance intheir everyday lives, and making young adults more"marriage-ready." Debates over these demographicchanges and policies have opened a window ontoprocesses of global norm diffusion related to stagesof the life course, and offer us an opportunity to con-sider how the state is embarking on a curious securi-ty project –– to increase individual expression for the"sake of the nation."

Although reproduction is regarded as a sacrosanctindividual choice, policymakers justify policies toboost the declining birthrate in the context of a riskmanagement frame, much the same way that poli-cies related to the environment, public health, andterrorism are usually discussed. In the case ofdeclining fertility rates, policymakers point to nega-tive externalities generated by individual choicesnot to get married or have children, including lesssocial security, less job security, a sputtering econo-my, and ultimately declining national power. Therisk management frame implies that people who donot have children are "free riders" of social securityand economic benefits on the backs of those who dohave children. Although few have put it as brazenlyas former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro, who sug-gested that childless women should not receivesocial security in their old age, policymakers com-monly refer to the "socialization" of childrearing,with the recognition that entire communities shouldsupport children as "public goods" or "society's trea-sures." The risk management frame thus suggeststhat personal lifestyle choices are, and should be,political, for fear of the potentially disastrous nega-tive externalities that might otherwise result. ANovember 2004 Asahi Shimbun poll (11/20/04, p. 15)shows that the risk management frame apparentlyresonates with a majority of citizens, with 80 percentof respondents concerned about the declining birthrate, and 58 percent reporting that it is a "socialproblem" as opposed to an "individual problem."

The risk management frame is also usually support-ed by a narrative of modernization and valuechange in postwar Japan. The narrative suggeststhat after the Second World War, Japan rose from theashes to become an economic superpower. But withthe achievement of prosperity, the advancement ofwomen in society, and the development of a con-sumer economy that caters to individuals throughconvenience stores and mass-produced goods, came

Social Risk, Value Change, and the Life Course:Japanese Shoshika Taisaku and Global Norms

Liv Coleman

SSJ-32 05.9.15 15:46 ページ 19


a breakdown of community due to urbanization,and a change in attitudes toward marriage, family,and children. The narrative also suggests that mod-ernization and value change are distorting the "nat-ural order." As Kawamoto Satoshi, one of the writ-ers of the first government white paper on thedeclining birth rate in 1992, put it, Japan has increas-ingly fewer children because of the difficulty of har-monizing individual self-realization with a societythat prizes natural rhythms and continuity (AsahiShimbun, 11/20/04, p. 15). Along similar lines, LDPMember Nakayama Taro, chair of an alliance of Dietmembers that spearheaded the 2003 Basic Law for aSociety with Few Children, has argued that the "typ-ical" family of the high-growth era has been disap-pearing, and that the country is becoming "strange"(okashikunattekiteiru) (Asahi Shimbun, 6/12/03, p.15).An LDP committee studying the declining birth ratehas referred to a family with a housewife and twochildren as the "standard family" or hyojun katei(Asahi Shimbun, 6/12/03, p. 15).

The risk management frame shows how shoshikataisaku sit uneasily aside global norms related to thesanctity of individual choice in the life course. Soci-ologist John Meyer suggests that globalization of thelife course is a process of developing "institutional-ized individualism" on a global scale. That is,"expanding global society increasingly legitimatesthe structuring of the life course as built around theproject of the individual's life and perspective, anddecreasingly derives life course rules from theneeds, projects, and perspectives of corporategroups and societies" (2004). Meyer sees the contentof global life course norms as essentially liberal,with individuals having more choice over variousaspects of their lives, including education, employ-ment, health, politics, and retirement, but he alsorecognizes new forms of social control over thesechoices by other individuals and associations.

So how do Japanese policymakers clinging to animage of the "ideal" family, stereotypical of the high-growth era, grapple with pressures to conform toglobal norms of individualized life courses? Mostfrequently, policymakers point to the gap betweenthe average number of children citizens report thatthey would like to have and the actual total fertilityrate to suggest that there must be artificial socialbarriers that prevent the population from naturallyreproducing. By removing barriers to allow these

various lifestyles to flourish, policymakers canencourage individuals to make their own choices,while simultaneously attempting to structure thesechoices through government programs, economicincentives, and moral suasion. The newest policyinitiatives have included attempts to tackle the mostfrequently identified cause of declining fertility rates- delayed marriage. Ministry of Health, Labor, andWelfare policymakers have been instituting incen-tives and programs to return the age of first mar-riage to more "normal" levels. To encourage citizensto marry and start families at a younger age, thereare policies to provide meeting places for youngmen and women, put junior and senior high schoolstudents in contact with babies to "demystify" themagic of life, and boost the economic self-sufficiencyof young people, who might otherwise be NEET("Not in Employment, Education, or Training") or"parasite singles," leeching off their parents' assetsinstead of building their own - or more importantly,society's. The framework for these policies was firstdeveloped as part of the "Plus One Plan" in 2002 andhave been extended by two laws passed in 2003, theBasic Law and the Law for Measures to Support theDevelopment of the Next Generation.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with removingsocial obstacles contributing to the declining birthrate and, as Frances Rosenbluth, Matthew Light, andClaudia Schrag (2002) suggest, fertility rates mayactually be a good proxy measure of women's abilityto balance family and career. Yet as we see in thecase of Japanese policies to boost the declining birthrate, the removal of social obstacles need not entailinstitutionalized individualism in accordance withglobal life course norms. Rather, the state plays alarge role in guiding individuals to make sociallyoptimal choices, with policymakers frequentlyinvoking the "national interest" or "greater good."The risk management frame, then, is what makes itpossible to reconcile the global norms and nationalinterests.

The Japanese government's framing of policies toboost the birthrate as risk management also hasimplications for Ronald Inglehart's (1997) theory ofpost-materialist value change. Inglehart argues thatpost-materialist concerns about identity claims, theenvironment, and lifestyle issues are replacing tradi-tional political conflict over the distribution ofresources. Certain societies, in other words, have

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graduated from a lower rung of Abraham Maslow'shierarchy of needs to higher rungs, based on self-ful-fillment. The risk management frame subverts thislogic, however. It's not that Japanese society is"graduating" from a lower rung of Maslow's hierar-chy, but rather the rungs are all collapsing togetheras the achievement of "self-realization" is said tobecome a necessary precondition for achieving eco-nomic and national security, by facilitating popula-tion growth.

This is the "full circle" of security in a late modernsociety. The framing of shoshika taisaku as risk man-agement seems to confirm the work of Ulrich Beck(1992), who suggests that in a risk society, individu-alization is the highest form of being integrated insociety –– that individuals are all part of a networkwith obligations to others, and must plan their livesaccordingly. So the trend toward individualizationis not necessarily derived solely from parochialinterests or centrifugal forces. In the case of Japan-ese policies to boost the birth rate, however, thedebate about plural lifestyles and families remainstethered to a national narrative; that is, the debate isfundamentally about maintaining Japan's position inthe world and achieving the collective nationalgood.

ReferencesBeck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Moder-

nity. Newbury Park, Calif.: SAGE. Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmod-

ernization: Cultural, Economic, and PoliticalChange in 43 Societies. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press.

Meyer, John W. 2004. "World Society, the WelfareState, and the Life Course: An InstitutionalPerspective," SocialWorld –– Working Paper No.8. Available on the World Wide Web at h t t p : / / w w w. u n i - b i e l e f e l d . d e / s o z /Forschung/Projekte/socialworld/pdf/work-ing%20paper%208.pdf

Rosenbluth, Frances, Matthew Light, and ClaudiaSchrag. 2002. "The Politics of Low Fertility:Global Markets, Women's Employment, andBirth Rates in Four Industrialized Economies."Paper presented at the annual meeting of theAmerican Political Science Association,Boston, Massachusetts.

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What is Political about 'Winter Sonata'? – On Women's Emotions, Everyday Life, and

Political Potential

Hayashi KaoriAssociate Professor, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary

Information Studies, University of TokyoApril 21, 2005

The popularity of "Winter Sonata," a South Korean soapopera, became something of a national phenomenon in Japanin 2004. This Korean drama series captured the hearts ofJapanese women, many of them in their 40s, 50s and 60s, a demographic usually considered outside of thesocial boom-making process. In this talk, Professor Hayashi examined this phenomenon from the following three points of view. First, fromthe perspectives of gender and the sociology of emotions, what was it about "Winter Sonata" that captivated somany women in Japan? Second, what actions did the audience take after they saw the drama, and how didthese actions affect relations between Japan and Korea? Third, how did the national (Japanese) media observethe fans of "Winter Sonata"? Professor Hayashi argued that although "Winter Sonata" itself has little to do with Korean culture or politics, ithas contributed to the formation of a public (mainly female) that is more sensitive to the theme of "Asia," and,in the long run, it may play an important role in the formation of a working concept of the public sphere inEast Asia.

How Policies Change Redux: TheGovernment and the Aging Society since1990

John Creighton CampbellProfessor of Political ScienceUniversity of Michigan

June 30, 2005

Professor Campbell's 1992 book, "How Policies Change:The Japanese Government and the Aging Society

(Princeton) traced the interplay of energy and ideas in the development of policy toward the elderly from themid-1950s on, winding up with the "Gold Plan" of 1990. The fifteen years hence have produced at least twomajor policy changes: the enactment of long-term-care insurance in 1997 and a series of efforts to reform publicpensions. In his talk, Professor Campbell used the recent policy revisions to examine continuities and changesin Japanese patterns of decision making, and to reassess old conclusions.

ISS Contemporary Japan Group at the Instituteof Social Science, University of TokyoThe ISS Contemporary Japan Group serves as a forum for researchers on Japan to receive criticalfeedback on their work. Researchers visiting Tokyo are invited to contact one of the persons listedbelow if they would like to make a presentation. Meetings are open to everyone. Please contactProfessor Ishida Hiroshi ([email protected]) or Nakamura Mayumi ([email protected]) for more information.

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Foreign Aid and the Spread of HIV/AIDS toWomen in Asia: Japanese ODA in Comparative

Perspective

Katya BurnsAbe Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Institute of

Social Science, University of TokyoJuly 14, 2005

HIV/AIDS has come to Asia. The most populous Asiancountries, China and India, now stand on the brink of ageneralized epidemic: one in which infection spreads from narrow high-risk groups to the population atlarge. In some regions of Asia, the epidemic has already generalized. As the epidemic generalizes, femaleinfection rates outstrip those of men. Foreign aid can address the infection of these young women and spareAsia the fate which now afflicts Africa, yet female infection rates in Asia continue to climb. In this talk,Professor Burns explored the forces driving the generalization of Asian epidemics, drawing examples fromrecent field interviews in India, China, and Vietnam, and the efforts of international donors, including Japan,to address the crisis.

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