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Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

bloomberg.com

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Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#101

Post by brazzy »

roenxi wrote: post #88
brazzy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes (and you can take that argument to deliciously absurd levels by pointing out that eventually humanity would have to form a sphere whose radius expands faster than light speed). But concerning the actual topic at hand, Japan's labor market problems have nothing whatsoever to do with a resource or land shortage.

They probably have something to do with that. At the moment, for Japan has a tiny handful of iron mines [0]. So if they want to produce a steel widget, they have to justify someone transporting the iron either through the Chinese mainland or up the coast, past a lot of people who are learning to do wonderful things with steel. They import a lot of coal from Australia but China has relatively easy access overland from…

Japan in the 1980 didn't have any better access to natural resources than it has today, yet it didn't have the labor market problems described in the article. Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and are not having these problems.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#102

Post by brazzy »

plutonorm wrote: post #27

They'll also get a burst of creativity. I know that whenever I am unemployed my creativity just gets diverted into the nearest interesting endeavour. One of those might have paid off and become a business. Quite likely in fact, if I hadn't had to work. I've often considered going on benefits so that I can work on my own ideas unhindered by work life. But I wanted a family more than I wanted time to pursue my other dr…

Please actually read the article. You couldn't be further from the truth.

This isn't about people temporarily out of a job for whom having a lot of free time is a breath of fresh air.

This is about people who have spent decades without a job or on-and-off underpaid jobs because they missed a critical, narrow window in their lives where full-time employment with actual career prospects was available. They feel stifled and useless, not creative.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#103

Post by brazzy »

watwut wrote: post #50

The American obsession over living or not with parents sounds almost pathological to me. Being jobless is issue. Long term inability to find partner is issue. But, if you don't have partner, what exactly is the reason for moving to live alone and why is focus specifically on "omg someone lives with parents"? I mean, multigenerational households were historical norm. It is not something super special that happened jus…

Living with their parents is a symptom of not being able to afford living on their own.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#104

Post by brazzy »

yorwba wrote: post #59

I wonder how much the stories about Japanese unemployment are just driven the the need for a good story vs. looking at actual figures. The Japanese labor force participation rate for 15-64 year-olds rose from about 70% in 1990 to 79% in 2020, as estimated by the International Labour Organization. In that time frame, it overtook China and the US (both have falling labor force participation rates) and the only other co…

The participation rate is a really coarse measure.

In Japan, it has increased mainly because among the younger generation, far more women stay in the workforce after their 20s. But as the article describes, their career prospects are very limited and few of them ever get a chance at stable lifetime employment that used to be the norm (but is also becoming less and less available) for men.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#105

Post by plutonorm »

brazzy wrote: post #102
plutonorm wrote: post #27

They'll also get a burst of creativity. I know that whenever I am unemployed my creativity just gets diverted into the nearest interesting endeavour. One of those might have paid off and become a business. Quite likely in fact, if I hadn't had to work. I've often considered going on benefits so that I can work on my own ideas unhindered by work life. But I wanted a family more than I wanted time to pursue my other dr…

Please actually read the article. You couldn't be further from the truth. This isn't about people temporarily out of a job for whom having a lot of free time is a breath of fresh air. This is about people who have spent decades without a job or on-and-off underpaid jobs because they missed a critical, narrow window in their lives where full-time employment with actual career prospects was available. They feel stifled…

I have understood the article. I am saying for a minority this will be a liberation from duty and will allow for their natural creativity to express itself. Many will feel stifled, useless and un creative - but a few will have an opportunity to create that a normal life would not have afforded them.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#106

Post by kiliancs »

jhanschoo wrote: post #86
everdrive wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean to be "10 years behind the western world" ? Are they behind in technology, values, policy? Can you give some examples? I'm not disagreeing with you, just curious for more info. (I don't know much about Japan myself.)

A partial answer: Googling 'japan fax' would give you many articles attesting that faxes are still a stable for communication in offices. e.g. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-ja... > Japan’s health ministry has said it will allow health centres to report new coronavirus cases online, instead of by handwritten faxes, after a doctor lambasted the legal requirement. Another very externally visi…

I appreciate this is a partial answer, but by those standards the US is also similarly behind. For example, still commonly use checks and they are nowhere near transitioning to the metric system.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#107

Post by mathattack »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #64
mathattack wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their population will drop. Each couple only has something like 1.2 kids. Lack of people to pay down their debts will be the long term problem.

Most of the debt is held by the Japanese themselves. They control their own currency. It isn't likely to be a problem for them.

Even still, the debt is held by people who eventually expect to use it to find their retirements. They can avoid external driven shocks, but at some point a smaller population can’t produce enough care for a larger one. That will play out in the debt markets, either with defaults or inflation.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#109

Post by decafninja »

brazzy wrote: post #103
watwut wrote: post #50

The American obsession over living or not with parents sounds almost pathological to me. Being jobless is issue. Long term inability to find partner is issue. But, if you don't have partner, what exactly is the reason for moving to live alone and why is focus specifically on "omg someone lives with parents"? I mean, multigenerational households were historical norm. It is not something super special that happened jus…

Living with their parents is a symptom of not being able to afford living on their own.

Outside of Western society, or maybe just outside of American society, this is completely untrue.

In parts of Asia, and even in Asian enclaves in the US, you can even see high earning people (say...hedge fundies, or FAANG SWEs) living with their parents. In these cultures, marriage is typically the point where you move out, not graduating college.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#110

Post by [deleted] »

brazzy wrote: post #102
plutonorm wrote: post #27

They'll also get a burst of creativity. I know that whenever I am unemployed my creativity just gets diverted into the nearest interesting endeavour. One of those might have paid off and become a business. Quite likely in fact, if I hadn't had to work. I've often considered going on benefits so that I can work on my own ideas unhindered by work life. But I wanted a family more than I wanted time to pursue my other dr…

Please actually read the article. You couldn't be further from the truth. This isn't about people temporarily out of a job for whom having a lot of free time is a breath of fresh air. This is about people who have spent decades without a job or on-and-off underpaid jobs because they missed a critical, narrow window in their lives where full-time employment with actual career prospects was available. They feel stifled…

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