Analysis: Many young Japanese tune out as economy totters

By Jason Szep

TOKYO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Japan's miserable economy doesn't worry 22-year-old Akane Sasaki, even if it means her dream job of traveling the world as a flight attendant may slip from reach.

"I haven't decided yet what I should do after graduation," says the international studies student at Kanda Gaigo University in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.

"But I'm not worried about my future," she says. "If I don't find a real job, I'll look for part-time work."

Sasaki and thousands of young people like her face Japan's harshest job market since World War Two.

Unemployment is at a record high, and data on Friday put Japan back in recession, only three years after its last one.

And although she graduates next March, the economy is the furthest thing from her mind.

"How do I feel about the economy? I don't feel anything. I'm not interested in the economy."

Sasaki is not alone.

Many young Japanese are opting out of Japan Inc while it's at its worst, shunning the cradle-to-grave lifetime employment of their parents' generation.

Some choose not to work, living off their parents' money, while others move from one part-time job to another, often saving up enough just enough for a burst of travel.

In America they were known as "slackers", a Generation X term for a rebellious youth with nowhere to go.

In Japan, they are "freeters" - a word coined by a job placement agency that mixes the English word "free" and German word for worker, "arbeiter".

They could hardly be more different to the workers of past generations that helped build Japan Inc in the 1980s with tightly focused careers launched straight from university into companies where a march up the corporate ladder usually took a lifetime.

But times are now different. Companies are shedding exactly those kind of jobs, sending unemployment to a record 5.4 percent in October. Lifetime employment itself has come under siege as companies slim down to compete in a tougher global marketplace.

And the government is worried about the trend.

SERIOUS PROBLEM

A government white paper on labour released last year said the number of "freeters" tripled between 1982 and 1997 to reach 1.51 million. Some estimate the number at two million last year.

"It's a serious problem," said Yasushi Okada, economist at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Ltd.

"Traditionally Japanese people get job training from their companies. If these young people do not find steady work, it means they will lose the opportunity to get training for jobs."

"Freeters", the white paper said, were mostly single men and women aged 15 to 34 who work on a part-time basis for less than five straight years.

Some social commentators have dismissed them as "parasite singles" syphoning funds from their parents while living at home, while others have praised the growing numbers for doing what they want in a society known for its rigid conformity.

Musing about her future, Sasaki says she'd like to be a DJ in a dance club. "These are hard times, I know. But I don't feel it's hard for me since my parents give me money so I don't have to work and know how hard it is," she says.

The white paper, expressing clear alarm at the rising ranks of "freeters" as a potential loss for Japanese society, makes distinctions between different groups in the new generation.

"One type wishes to have more time for something else they really want to do. A second type feels uneasy about the future. The third type simply wants to remain a 'freeter'. The fourth type does so for other reasons," it said.

TACKLING THE PROBLEM

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi swept to power in April last year vowing to root out inefficiencies in Japan's foundering economy. The tradition of jobs-for-life was obvious target, and economists say this is partly behind a surge in part-time work.

Koizumi's government is now scrambling to try to prevent its own reforms from adding to the ranks of "freeters".

In July it opened the country's first government-run job centre in Osaka, and in September it announced plans to create posts for 50,000 career counselors in the next five years.

Some high schools are also said to be discouraging the "freeter" lifestyle in career guidance sessions.

But commentators say it boils down to individual choice: some young Japanese want an alternative lifestyle and view a "freeter" life as a chance to avoid getting dragged into Japan Inc and following the footsteps of their parents.

Other students, however, are watching the economy closely and buckling down in preparation of a tough job market.

"I feel the economy disappoints us, especially my friends who are going to do job hunting from now," said Saiko Mine, a 21-year-old student in Chiba.

She says she fears her English languages classes may not be enough to help her to land the job she wants when she graduates, so she is heading to Italy to learn Italian.

"I have heard there are many people who understand English, so if I understand English and Italian it should really help me with my job hunting."

(Article is no longer on reuters.com)