A few weeks back, I read an article in Asahi Shinbun’s “Ronza” magazine by Akagi Tomohiro, a Japanese “freeter” blogger. Freeter is a Japanese word used to describe the growing number of young people in Japan who don’t hold a full-time job and still live at home with their parents. Aged 31, the blogger wrote an article that got quite a bit of attention on the Internet entitled, “War is my hope.” In it, Akagi argues that Japan’s lack of wars is the reason there is a growing number of freeters and other non-full time workers in Japanese society. War, in his opinion, serves an important “bleeding” function in society; in the same way doctors hundreds of years ago used to bleed their patients to eliminate poisons and other unhealthy elements in the body, war eliminates from society an excess supply of workers allowing those who survive the opportunity for economic prosperity, which for him, is getting hired full time at a company. At the core of his complaint is the belief that unlike the post-war baby boomer generation, his generation, the post-bubble generation, has virtually no opportunities to find suitable employment. He believes that in order to get society “flowing” again, war is necessary; and according to him, this sentiment is growing among today’s youth.
I have a number of issues with Akagi’s article, but I will focus on highlighting three faulty premises which Akagi bases his justification for war as an economic band-aid. Akagi’s first faulty assumption is his belief that it is society’s responsibility to provide people with good jobs not the individual’s responsibility to find them. Secondly, Akagi believes that his generation should be provided with the same opportunities that the post-war generation had.
The problem with Akagi’s premise is his belief that society should give him the chance to get a permanent job. Although it’d be nice, society guarantees no such thing. The prevailing economic system in the world is market capitalism and this system functions as a result of the simple law of supply and demand. Economic opportunities exist only where supply and demand meet.
Akagi mentions that companies pre-bubble era, were willing to hire and train workers to give them marketable skills, but in the post-bubble era, companies have become more conservative in both their hiring and training; in his opinion, this is a result of the desire to protect the older generation, which comes at the expense of the younger generation. While this is arguably true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there are no job opportunities or that it’s impossible to get hired as full-time employee, it just means that one needs to work a lot harder. My issue with Akagi is the general lack of responsibility that seems to taint his argument. In his article, he sounds like a child complaining about unfair parents who refuse to give him the toys he wants even though his friends’ parents have met their child’s demands. Rather than thinking about how he can earn and deserve the toys that he wants, Akagi seems to think that society should give it to him; although he describes it as being given a “chance” to work or to develop a skill, it’s not really that different than a kid saying to his parents, “give me what I want because you’re my parents and you should.” Akagi is basically saying, “Give me a job or training because your society and that’s what society should do.” Sorry Mr. Akagi, the world doesn’t work that way.
Ideally, a democratic society is a gathering of rational minded people who decide on a set of laws or principles upon which all members of society can peacefully co-exist. The American version includes a few added niceties, or “rights,” they are: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, it’s important to note that a right to pursue happiness isn’t, in any way, a guarantee of happiness; happiness, defined by any standards, whether it be: materially, spiritually or emotionally, has to be earned. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that all people will have the same opportunities; people who are wealthy have more access to resources than those who are poorer, and in Mr. Akagi’s case, people who came of age after the war had more opportunities than people coming of age today; although it may be seen as “unfair,” it’s a simple fact of life. What society should provide, in my opinion, is the guarantee that if one is willing to persistently work hard for something, he should be able to attain it; that is, the laws of man should protect a man’s right to earn a decent living given that he continues to work hard for it.
Mr. Akagi notes the situation of the working poor, people who work hard but are barely able to get by or in some cases are not even able to maintain a dignified standard of living. The other problem I have with Mr. Akagi’s stance is the implied definition of “hard working.” For many people, the term “hard working,” refers usually to time spent or effort. The former is measurable by a well-defined metric, while the latter is a bit more vague; what constituted “hard work” in post-war Japan is different than what would constitute “hard work” in present day Japan. For example, if someone spent an entire day transcribing notes via pen and paper, rather than using a computer, in today’s world we wouldn’t call that “working hard”—we would call it “working stupid.” The problem in Japan, America and most other advanced nations is that their economies have become primarily “service” based, rather than “manufacturing” based; there is a fundamental difference in skill sets. While youth in post-war Japan could get by with just physical labor or following orders from above, in today’s global economy, the old, “follow the leader” mentality won’t cut it; in order to survive in today’s fast paced economy, one has to be creative, innovative and constantly improving; the means to this end is in education.
The irony of Mr. Akagi’s complaint is the fact that he is a well-educated individual; if he weren’t he would not be able to write such a compelling article worthy of being published in a Asahi newspaper (One of the largest Japanese newspaper companies) magazine. Given his intelligence, I find it a bit unfortunate that he cannot develop a marketable skill set that would land him the kind of job he desires. I don’t think it’s a matter of opportunity, but a question of willingness. There are no freebies in society, whether democratic or not.
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Tags: 3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
< ![CDATA[This commentator has absolutely no idea of what Japan´s "lost generation" and its traditional thinking way is like.
Maybe his or her character prevents him/her to have the capability to comprehend other people´s plight.
I am pretty sure you refuse to understand the plight of underprivileged in the USA.]]>
< ![CDATA[Muramatsu san is right.
Do you know that Akagi san is not complaining about his plight of not getting a well paid job. He is complaining about discriminations at work.
As a "HAKEN WORKER" he is discriminated. The pay for the so-called "haken worker" is only ca.40% of the regular workers´ for the same work in the same company, although those "HAKEN" are full time workers like regular employees!!
On top of that those "HAKEN" are looked down by regular workes in working places and by the society as lazy people, because many of them did not start to work when they left school. Even their parents do not understand their own children´s plight. At age of 31 his endurance finally bursted.
In your words: you get 4$ and your brother get 10$ as reward for the same chore from your parents and everybody laughed at you because you are a 40% boy.
Would you like to be a 40% boy ?!
By the way I am sure Akagi san is surely intelligent enough to foresee the kind of reaction you made. He lives in Japan after all. In Japan it´s all your fault if you do not succeed. And you rarely get a second chance.
Your logic does not apply to Japan.]]>
< ![CDATA[The point is labor workers around the world are losing their jobs. In America, Japan, Germany, pretty much the entire industrialized world. He says that he just wants a stable job, but the reality is, those jobs are becoming fewer and fewer.
The question I would like to ask him is why he doesn't go find a full time job and if he can't why doesn't he leave Japan? My parents left Taiwan because they knew there was very little opportunity there. My Japanese teacher left Japan, with very little English ability, for similar reasons. If he can't find a job in Japan, why does he stay there?
I can understand that Japan is a very unforgiving society, I've lived there and I would agree with your opinion. But there's nothing stopping him from leaving and going to a place with better opportunities. The problem I see in his article is that he wants an "easy" job. By easy I mean a job that anybody could do with very little skill. While I don't think there is anything wrong with that, the reality is, you can't expect to get paid a decent wage for doing something that anyone can do. It's a matter of demand and supply than anything else.
If he feels discriminated against and can't find a full time job. Perhaps he should go elsewhere to look. No one says he has to stay in Japan.
This is the version I’ve read. In case anyone is interested.]]>