Japan’s Falling Birthrate Attributed to Rising Temporary Employment
“Japan’s birth rate may be falling because there are fewer good opportunities for young people, and especially men, in the country’s economy. In a country where men are still widely expected to be breadwinners and support families, a lack of good jobs may be creating a class of men who don’t marry and have children because they—and their potential partners—know they can’t afford to.“
‘“The gender stuff is pretty consistent with trends around the world—men are having a harder time,” said Anne Allison, a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University who edited the recent collection of scholarly essays Japan: The Precarious Future. “The birth rate is down, even the coupling rate is down. And people will say the number-one reason is economic insecurity.”’
"Now, according to Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University’s Japan campus and the author of several books about Japan, around 40 percent of the Japanese workforce is “irregular,” meaning they don’t work for companies where they have stable jobs for their whole careers, and instead piece together temporary and part-time jobs with low salaries and no benefits.”
“In a culture that places such an emphasis on men being breadwinners, this has serious implications for marriage and childbearing. Men who don’t have regular jobs are not considered desirable marriage partners; even if a couple wants to get married, and both have irregular jobs, their parents will likely oppose it, according to Ryosuke Nishida, a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology who has written about unemployment among young workers.”
The Atlantic, June 20, 2017: “The Mystery of Why Japanese People Are Having So Few Babies Many point to unromantic 20-somethings and women’s entry into the workforce, but an overlooked factor is the trouble young men have in finding steady, well-paid jobs,” by Alana Semuels
Super Painful Game of Life in Modern Japan
“The omnipresence of “the dark corporation” is an essential part of the new game of life in modern Japan. As with The Game of Life, SUPER PAINFUL GAME OF LIFE” portrays the realities of modern day Japan. Hence, the references to Japan’s exploitive and inhumane corporate behemoths and the notion of job insecurity and childlessness, all hits a little too close to home.”
“So what are dark corporations? They are defined as companies that “typically hire young employees and then force them to work large amounts of overtime without extra pay. While specifics may vary from company to company, conditions are generally poor and workers are subject to verbal abuse, sexual harassment and bullying” according to Haruki Konno head of Posse a group that helps young people with working environment problems. In a word, it’s a buffet of horrors with every kind of HR nightmare: sexual harassment? Pawahara(power harassment from your superiors)? Karoshi(death by overwork) for unpaid overtime? Take your pick! “
“The even darker reality is perhaps that even a job at a dark enterprise is better than no job at all in Japan these days. The game imitates life in the sense that if you do not land on a block that allows you to get a job, you will proceed as a “Fureetar”(a neo-English coined word for unemployed people) deprived of the good salary and benefits your peers enjoy. Such is life in Japan, if you do not manage to obtain a job straight out of college, that is, if you had the advantage of going to college to begin with, you may as well consider your career over. Even more so nowadays that the number of regular employees is roughly 60 percent, a significant decline from the 85 percent in 1985.
“The easing of labor dispatch laws has caused this shift in job security and people are willing to put up with compromising conditions which is a breeding ground for the dark companies to flourish and a cause of the ever-growing working poor.”
Japan Subculture Research Centre,January 13, 2017: “Life In Japan AKA The (Super Painful) Game Of Life,” by Mari Yamamoto & Jake Adelstein
Japan Subculture Research Centre, May 17, 2017: “Japan’s Labor Ministry Names and Shames “Dark Companies” For Labor Abuse,” by Makoto Iwahashi & Jake Adelstein
