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The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

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Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#61

Post by Legogris »

ronnier wrote: post #24
patio11 wrote: post #2

One reason for this is the primacy of the workplace/school, to the total exclusion of any third place. If you don't have a job or are harassed out of your school, what does one do when not working? Japan does not have great ready-made answers to this question, for many people. (It seems like a silly question, but after six years here, I honestly struggled with it after leaving the day job. Where should one be at 3 PM…

I go to Taito Station and play Ultra Street Fighter 4 and/or coffee shops when I don't have much else going on.

Strolling in the konbini or donki and figuring out what I could possibly find that could satiate this vague craving for something that I don't know what it is also works. You never know what you end up, buying, if anything. More often than not something dense in calories and/or containing caffeine or alcohol. Oh consumerism.

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#62

Post by lhl »

kalleboo wrote: post #57
jkot wrote: post #22

So first, economy in Japan sucks, there is not that many jobs and houses to go around. Also problem is not just depression, but shame and lack of alternatives. And hikomori also affects women at large scale. Japan (and any Confucian culture) shames people who do not accept their traditional roles. Men are expected to work until they fall dead. Women are expected to take care of children (while optionally following ca…

> So first, economy in Japan sucks, there is not that many jobs and houses to go around There are plenty of jobs. In fact, there's a labor shortage. It's just that they're all shitty low-wage part time jobs with no security. Housing only seems to be a problem in Tokyo. My wife and I have been looking at apartments and there are tons of all sizes that have been open for months. Nothing at all like back home in Sweden…

Even in Tokyo the residential vacancy rates are still very high - more than 10% depending on the ward, and more than 15% when looking at the burbs. Manhattan vacancy rates, as a point of reference, are around 2%.

Prices apparently have been going up (attributed to the upcoming Olympics[1]), but honestly, when I walk around and look at rental prices, they seem pretty reasonable (damn cheap even) compared to say, Los Angeles (smaller units, but also cheaper per BR).

You're definitely right about the rest of the country though, and outside of Tokyo, population has already peaked and is decreasing...

For those w/ a burning interest in JP real estate, comprehensive market research is plentiful:

https://www.nri.com/jp/opinion/r_report/pdf/japanreport2013_...

http://www.savills.co.jp/research/japan-residential-research...

http://japanpropertycentral.com/

[1] http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Property/Tokyo-property-price...

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#63

Post by lhl »

VLM wrote: post #60
kalleboo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So first, economy in Japan sucks, there is not that many jobs and houses to go around There are plenty of jobs. In fact, there's a labor shortage. It's just that they're all shitty low-wage part time jobs with no security. Housing only seems to be a problem in Tokyo. My wife and I have been looking at apartments and there are tons of all sizes that have been open for months. Nothing at all like back home in Sweden…

"In fact, there's a labor shortage." This is their version of the American corporate reported STEM shortage. There's such a high demand and so few qualified employees that IBM has to lay off thousands a year, every year, for decades. If there's only "real jobs" for maybe 75% of the population, and 5% of the population decides to opt out leaving only 20% wanting real jobs and unable to get them, then its not really a…

There really is a labor shortage in Japan and has been for a long time. Govt data shows as much as a 1.1:1 job:job seeker ratio. However, the parent poster is right in that a big part of the problem is that most of the jobs are crap (part-time/temp, terrible pay). I see job-wanted signs in every other restaurant/cafe I pass, but honestly, I don't think most people consider part-time $10/hr at Yoshinoya a long-term career path.

Still, you can take a look at the the search results for "japan labor shortage" yourself. https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+labor+shortage Everything from construction, shipbuilding, airlines, and other kinds of skilled work are also feeling the heat. (other big parts of the problem are lots of skilled labor retiring every year, and terrible hiring, labor and super-xenophobic immigration policies)

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#65

Post by precisioncoder »

jblok wrote: post #58
Ideka wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted you. You shouldn't generalize people (doing it by race is called racism; doing it by country has no fancy name that I know of but it's wrong all the same), or refer to some cultures as "better" than others.

Doing it by country is racism. Doing it by religion is also racism. These things make up your race.

That's simply not true, according to the definition of race it requires sharing a biologically identifiable connection with other people. An Asian man and a Native American could be born in the same place and raised in the same family but would not share the same race. Discrimination on the basis of country is a separate thing which I don't think has a specific term. Wasn't able to find one with a quick Google at least.

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#66

Post by mdcpepper »

Ideka wrote: post #56
marincounty wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize for the--know it all--you are responding to. The one thing that really irritates me about Americans(including myself at one time) is we think we know, or have the the answers to Everything! I can kind of stomach it when it comes to our culture, but it become nauseous when we comment on other, usually better cultures.

I downvoted you. You shouldn't generalize people (doing it by race is called racism; doing it by country has no fancy name that I know of but it's wrong all the same), or refer to some cultures as "better" than others.

I think "xenophobia" might be the most applicable term.

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#67

Post by Retric »

SyneRyder wrote: post #15
bane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm married into a South Korean family, and from my observation Korean society has less intense version of Japan's social collective mood (IIR it's written as '情' in both countries) It's really difficult to read about this kind of thing and maintain an appropriate feeling of cultural relativism without wanting go "oh Japan" or in my case "oh Korea". There's been many times with my family and friends a seemingly intra…

> "Then you end up with the strangest of all joiner group identities, the ones made up of "individuals" who strive obsessively to be "individuals" just exactly like all the rest of their clique-mates. I think you just described the goth scene perfectly :) Though at least some of the goths are hyper aware of it & treat their "I'm like so different" goth uniform as a joke. On a related note, going to a goth nightclub r…

Most of that is just culture blindness. Saying all Goth’s look alike is basically saying that all opera’s sound alike.

Objectively clowns costumes have a lot more verity than suits. However, for someone that knows suits they can be rather expressive. That same person might group a clown as 'other' and not bother to parse it past, wig, face paint, and bright clothing.

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#69

Post by adnzzzzZ »

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #28
jhou2 wrote: post #13

I might be way off, but I tend to view this from an economic perspective in that these young (and not so young) shut-ins, in a pragmatic sense, don't need to work to survive. Their parents are able to provide for them all the basic needs for life - mostly shelter and food. It is a relatively small marginal expense to the parents who usually already have fair incomes. Until the parents pass away, which may take some t…

I'm extremely introvert and – as a student, not a neet! – I've lived the past months in a manner similar to that described by the article. I think no shut-in nor introvert gets satisfaction from such behaviour.

If you have your goals and you're still productive doing whatever you do best I don't see why anyone would get no satisfaction from it.

Re: The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

#70

Post by antihero »

SyneRyder wrote: post #15
bane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm married into a South Korean family, and from my observation Korean society has less intense version of Japan's social collective mood (IIR it's written as '情' in both countries) It's really difficult to read about this kind of thing and maintain an appropriate feeling of cultural relativism without wanting go "oh Japan" or in my case "oh Korea". There's been many times with my family and friends a seemingly intra…

> "Then you end up with the strangest of all joiner group identities, the ones made up of "individuals" who strive obsessively to be "individuals" just exactly like all the rest of their clique-mates. I think you just described the goth scene perfectly :) Though at least some of the goths are hyper aware of it & treat their "I'm like so different" goth uniform as a joke. On a related note, going to a goth nightclub r…

Weirdly, as an extrovert who had serious social anxiety as a teen, I find that hanging out with people who are still socially awkward and introverted brings me right back to the anxiety I conquered years ago. I think the key factor now is that as an extrovert I give out a lot of social energy and so when I don't receive it back in turn I think I've fucked up or aren't entertaining people and thus it makes me briefly quite self conscious.
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