neet is neat n sweet?

As well as hikikomori, neet or niito is also a growing phenomenon of social dropouts in Japan. Neet is a young person who is "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" (OECD, 2018).

                                  

Neets basically refer to people who already finished their compulsory education (or even upper secondary and higher education), but didn't get any job to make their life by themselves. Some of the neets deliberately remain unemployed because they fail to keep their desired career track and are unwilling to take a job that does not measure up to their standards (Vogel, 2012). Neets have a common point with hikikomori that both refuse social interactions, and that is why most of hikikomori are also neets. Many young people of neets have all the right family and education credentials, but becomes long-term unemployed because they did not get the job they wanted after finished college or they quickly quit their job when they figured out it did not meet their expectations.

(data from https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/statistics/timeseries/html/g0303_02.html)

The unemployment rate in Japan peaked in 2002, when the rate reached 5.4% (overall) and 10.1% (15-24 year old cohort) in period between 1968-2017. This is said because of serious deflation recession at that time coming from 9.11 incident and the collapse of Internet Bubble. As you can see in the graph, 15-24 year-old cohort, referring to young generation who just finished their education, always keeps the highest unemployment rate compared to other age cohorts.

It is a sort of irony that people with high education credentials cannot or do not get any jobs after finished college because higher education is pretty much supposed to help them prepare for their future or choose their possible careers. It is actually interesting to think why this mystery happens. These days, the word "komyu-sho" (I could not find any good translation to English, but), which could be interpreted as "being too shy," "socially awkward" or a "bad texter," is becoming a phenomenon. This basically refers to people who have strong social anxiety to meet new people and feel difficulty to communicate with others smoothly, and being "komyu-sho" would become a barrier when you get a job. People with "komyu-sho" (in many cases, they label themselves "komyu-sho") get in trouble with colleagues or just cannot get accustomed to the new environment.

The issues of neets and "komyu-sho" are really not problems about their "communication skill." They are rather about their self-confidence or self-esteem because such people just underestimate themselves, and assume that just one mistake would ruin their whole life. And in this context, education is highly linked with those issues. Education in Japan today as an institution which gives young kids social identity fails to teach them to be confident and proud of themselves.

<references>

OECD. (2018), Education at a Glance 2018: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-en

The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training. (2018). Labor Statistics, https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/statistics/timeseries/html/g0303_02.html

Vogel, H. S. (2012). Japanese Society under Stress. Asian Survey, Vol. 52, No. 4. pp. 687-713

【sociopath??】Hikikomori in Japan

                               

Japan has encountered a growing phenomenon of social dropouts, first as 6-15 year old children who refuse to go to school (toukou kyohi) and then later as adults who stay sheltered at home most of the day (hikikomori) (Vogel, 2012). There are multiple factors why such people refuse social interactions, but in many cases, school kids retreat to the confines of home to avoid facing failure, rejection, or social disapproval. 

Here is the graph showing how the number of school kids in Japan (green bars), and the percentage of school refusals (red line) changed over time. As you see in the graph, the percentage of school refusal has risen up especially since 2012 (H24) whilst the number of school kids has been drastically decreasing between 1997 (H9) and 2016 (H28). This means that schools are facing more serious issues of how they could get kids to school. 

School refusals and hikikomori are issues highly embedded in Japanese cultural values and customs. Japanese people often value "collectivism" which refers to the strong sense of community or unity of group. We are pretty much supposed to follow the social norms by doing the same way the other people do. If you do something outstanding (or something not "normal"), people would cast a cynical eye on you. As the globalist perspective demands more "individualistic" values for seeking global competitiveness in the world, however, Japanese society today began to focus on "individualism" introducing a new pattern of thinking and behavior, and giving freedom and responsibility to individuals. The struggle of people labeled "sociopath," that ensues in today's Japanese society, can be seen as a battle between new and old cultural values.

<reference>

Vogel, H. S. (2012). Japanese Society under Stress. Asian Survey, Vol. 52, No. 4. pp. 687-713