世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Research, in cooperation with the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd, performed an internet-based survey in Decemeber of 2005 amongst 1,076 people regarding their views on NEETs and Freeters. At the same time, 218 companies also answered a similar set of questions, and the answers have been gathered together for presentation in this report, although the text does not make it clear whereabout the company answers have been included. Unfortunately, neither the sex nor the age breakdown of the survey is available, as that might have provided extra clues to interpreting the results.

First, I had better translate a couple of terms. NEET, or Not in Education, Employment or Training, was first coined in the UK to refer to teenagers, mainly, who left school with neither a job not ongoing education lined up. In Japan, it refers to a much wider population; there is no age limit, and as for employment, NEETs may do casual or very short-term labour (in fact, there are a number of heavily-advertised web sites that advertise these pocket-money jobs) and may very well have completed a university degree, but due to various factors have not decided to commit themselves to a job. I am not sure from where exactly they get money to support themselves, but it is most likely from their parents.

Freeters, on the other hand, is a purely Japanese word, formed by taking the English word “freelance”, or perhaps just “free”, and the German word “arbeiter”, meaning part-time, or at least not a full employee, 正社員, seishain. Many of the part-time jobs are in the service industry, so a freeter may flit from flipping burgers in McDonalds for three months, to doing the late night shift at the local convenience for another two months, to two weeks not working at anything at all.

The essential difference is perhaps that a NEET spends more time not working whereas a Freeter works just enough to fund his own time off. Along with the overall decrease in young people, with NEETs and Freeters not contributing much in the way of taxes, the ability of the government to pay pensions in the future is further threatened by the casualisation (is that a word?) of the workforce.

In Japan today, the number of NEETs is around 640,000 people, and along with the over two million Freeters, this is a cause for concern in many ways.

First, looking at the internet questionnaire results we see the following. 90.0% of the sample knew the term NEET. In addition, 17 people (1.6%) from the whole same identified themselves as NEETs, and 35 (3.3%) identified themselves as Freeters, most of whom were in their twenties. If those whose said one of their children, spouses, or partners was such were included, the total becomes 89 people, or 8.3% of the total sample. Some of the following translations are a bit dodgy…

Q1: What do you think of the popular term NEET? (Sample size=1,076, multiple answer)

Cool	2.6%
Uncool	37.9%
It’s a discriminatory label	27.4%
It describes the essense of the matter (bad translation!)	21.5%
It helps share awareness of the problem with the general public	26.3%
It unhelpfully doesn’t reflect the true issues	15.7%
Rather than resolving the problem, it has the reverse effect	24.4%
Other	1.9%

Q2: What do you think of the popular term Freeter? (Sample size=1,076, multiple answer)

Cool	3.0%
Uncool	30.6%
It’s a discriminatory tlabel	18.3%
It describes the essense of the matter (bad translation!)	28.6%
It helps share awareness of the problem with the general public	21.2%
It unhelpfully doesn’t reflect the true issues	17.8%
Rather than resolving the problem, it has the reverse effect	20.1%
Other	2.2%

Interestingly, 58% of those in their teens said NEETs were uncool, yet only 42% of those in their twenties and 36% in their thirties gave it a negative label, and a similar trend was noted for the Freeter label.

Q3: Are NEETs a social problem? (Sample size=1,076)

Yes	80.5%
No	3.5%
Difficult to say either way	12.1%
Don’t know	3.9%

Q4: Are Freeters a social problem? (Sample size=1,076)

Yes	55.2%
No	12.9%
Difficult to say either way	29.0%
Don’t know	2.9%

For Freeters, the most common reason given for them not being a problem was that they are at least in employment.

Q5: What do you think is the main reason that the numbers of NEETs and Freeters is increasing? (Sample size=1,076)

Reason	Votes
Self-indulgence	112
Abundance	102
Poor education	87
Firms or work structure	86
Scarcity of jobs	79
Poor economy	78
Parents or family	73
Spoilt children	67
No ambition	63
Work image or values	52
Society	49
No objectives	44
No hope, no dreams, worries	27
Poor human relationships	22

For those in questions 3 and 4 who identified NEETs or Freeters as a problem for society, 56.1% said that government, municipalities or employers should be requested to take measures to address the issue. 8.8% said that not measures were needed, and the remaining 35.1% couldn’t say either way. Some of the reasons expressed for not requiring counter-measures included that appropriate measures would be difficult, being a NEET or Freeter is a personal choice, and that families should take responsibility.

Q6: What one basic measure should be taken to tackle this problem? (Sample size not clear)

Measure	Votes
Encouragement for employment	51
Reform education	44
Work education, training	43
Easy to work environment	31
Companies increase full-time employees	28
Punative taxes, etc	26
Business introduction	22
Training courses	22
Conscription or compulsory employment	10

Other reasons included worksharing and that companies should stop making profits the overriding priority.