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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

#291

Post by fearn077 »

offtop5 wrote: post #130

>Under Katsube’s direction, Junko also enrolled in a program that helps shut-ins learn social skills by engaging in activities such as gardening, music, sports, and volunteering. America desperately needs this. I fear the rise of social media has caused more and more people to stay inside all day without interacting with any real humans. I've found Meetup to work very well for getting out of the house. I did find it…

Your fix for technology enabled social distance was more technology.

I love it.

Perhaps social media has done that to some people. But I still see my neighbors out in their garden, and even outside with musical instruments. My musical friends come over and play outside with me. I garden alone because socializing over everything is insane to me.

I disagree there’s a real problem.

Re: people living at home still.

That trend was there before social media and COVID. Along with women having kids later, and adults finding career success later.

The economic math always points to the gerontocracy locking up capital, and of course their generational peers in government refuse to use their legislative powers to do anything but hand sacks of capital to their buddies, who then point us toward shovels.

This isn’t magic. We know where the problem is. Believing we need to import another fad for people to consume is ridiculous.

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

#292

Post by diob »

jjnoakes wrote: post #287
diob wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd probably do wonders for their economy, given the results from that Microsoft test where they only worked 4 days a week ( https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776163853/microsoft-japan-say... ). With that boost, people could work less and they could afford to pay them more. It's a win win situation, but it's hard to change views when it comes to work. Folks want to believe that working more is better, but really it's a…

If cutting hours for existing employees leads to increased productivity, then you don't need to hire new workers to make up the difference in hours.

What are you getting at? Why would they be focusing on hours instead of growing the company?

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

#293

Post by timoth3y »

The hikikomori are written about a lot in the Japanese and western press, and I think it's great that Japanese society is making a conscious effort to reach out to people and see how they can be made more happy and productive.

The stats in the article are probably correct, but leaves out some very important context.

- Many Japanese adults live with their parents. Multi-generational households are quite common, especially outside of the big cites. This is not new. In fact, it is becoming less common, not more.

- Japan has an official unemployment rate of about 2%, but for almost all jobs there are more openings than applicants.

From the article: > For the class of 2021, the ratio is set to dip to 1.53 jobs per graduate, from 1.83 this year. “It’s like the employment ice age,” Kubo says. “It’s happening again.”

The situation for these people is not nearly as dire as many try to paint it.

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

#294

Post by jjnoakes »

diob wrote: post #292
jjnoakes wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If cutting hours for existing employees leads to increased productivity, then you don't need to hire new workers to make up the difference in hours.

What are you getting at? Why would they be focusing on hours instead of growing the company?

I'm curious about op's suggestion that cutting hours from some will employ others. Maybe I'm thick but on the surface I'm not seeing how.

If you cut back hours from 60 to 30 and pay less then wages drop.

And if you don't pay less then the new employees aren't being paid for by the decrease in hours.

Just trying to understand the original idea here.

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

#295

Post by glouwbug »

creata wrote: post #135
glouwbug wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stresses of university already propels you into adult hood, and by living with your parents, the extra money you save on housing will set you up better for when you do move out. Living with your parents is not the definition of childhood. The definition of childhood is not realizing rent and food cost large sums of money, or that credit systems allow you to purchase rent and food without money, or that houses can…

What stresses do you have in mind? (I'm a third-year right now and I've had nothing to stress about and nothing to do. I just read HN and developer blogs all day. I'd definitely hesitate to say I'm an adult.)

I found university fairly difficult. I studied a Bachelors of Applied Science in a mix of mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, and I had lots of sleepless nights, feeling as if though I was running some sort of daily mathematical gauntlet. I had my parents to help with the cooking and the (rent-free) living, but the daily commute, the 8 hour days of class, the 2AM study sessions, projects, and homework assignments, really threw me into what I perceived to be adult hood. To each their own, though. If one doesn't feel challenged in higher education, then I can see how one could perceive University to just be an extension of high school. The real kicker is, much doesn't change after University. A day job can be easier, and less stress, and learning how to toss a couple chicken breasts on the pan after work is pretty simple

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

#296

Post by uhryks »

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…

It's very easy in japan to find a "baito" job, that is low skill, part time and paid at the hour and with no benefits. People like the "freeters" cumulate several of these jobs to earn a decent monthly wage. The problem is of course that there is no security of employment, very little rights and as I said no benefits like pension. Housing is still doable as the market is not too high tension, but it's pretty much impossible for them to get a loan for anything. Raising children and sending them to higher education is pretty much not feasible. I guess for US people it's pretty similar to the fast-food workers earning less than livable wage.

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

#297

Post by inglor_cz »

asdff wrote: post #229
inglor_cz wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biology puts some limits on that. Fertility of women goes down in the fourth decade of life. The # of aneuploid ova rises sharply. It is possible that there will be scientific development solving that, but so far, we do not have enough young fertile people to practice your obvious method, unless they were ready to have 4+ kids each.

in vitro fertilization is the development you are looking for, and exists for those who can afford it.

I know quite a lot about IVF, we are currently going through it.

For IVF to work, you need good ova (eggs). You can stimulate the woman to harvest eggs, but in women over 35, the share of ova that have unrecoverable genetic errors (aneuploidy) grows fast and women over 40 hardly have any good eggs.

This might be amenable to future therapies, given that old mice were currently medicated with NMN (a NAD+ precursor) and produced many more good eggs compared to the control group. But as of today, this is the hardest biological limit on IVF efficiency.

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

#298

Post by sumedh »

Animats wrote: post #164
roenxi wrote: post #2

The things that stand out to me about Japan: * 3rd largest economy. * 11th largest population (top 10 until recently, they basically tie with Mexico). * If you look at a table of countries by area, they are there. Even in the top half, thanks to places like Tuvalu. I think there is a very strong on-the-face-of-it argument that they just have too many people and not enough for them to do, economically speaking. If the…

The population of Japan is shrinking. A lot. The population peaked in 2011 and is down about 2 million since then. Outside of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, Japan is emptying out. Japan does not have too many people. India, though...

India's birth rate has been deceasing for 30 years now.

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

#299

Post by sumedh »

pmlnr wrote: post #4

Japan has the problems now we, Western society will be facing in 20 years. This has been true since the 80s, so it's be nice to learn from it, and not follow it.

Lot of western countries have immigration, Japan does not. I dont think the west will follow Japan.
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