Yamada Masahiro of the Tokyo Gakugei University Faculty of Education coined the term parasaito shinguru ("parasite singles") in a 1997 article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (February 8, evening edition) to describe "unmarried people who, even after leaving school, continue to live with their parents and depend on them for food, clothing, and shelter."
By 1998, U.S. News and World Report had picked up the term, which it translated "parasitic singles" (October 5). Yamada expanded on his thesis with an essay titled "Kore o shôshika fukyô to naze iwanu" (Why Isn't This Called a Low-Birthrate Recession?) in the August 1998 issue of Shokun, arguing that the proliferation of childless live-at-home singles was one cause of Japan's protracted recession.
In the August 1999 issue of Voice, he painted a more detailed picture of young people gadding about spending their money on recreation, trips abroad, and designer goods (see "The Growing Crop of Spoiled Singles," Japan Echo, vol. 27, no. 3 [June 2000]). Finally, in October 1999, he published an entire book on the subject titled Parasaito shinguru no jidai (The Era of Parasite Singles; Chikuma Shobô).
Whether or not it was Yamada's intent to portray Japan's young adults as a group of spoiled brats who spend lavishly while refusing to do any work that does not catch their fancy--or, indeed, while enjoying their unemployment--this is the image that took hold as a result of his commentary. Among those taking issue with this portrayal was Genda Yûji. In an article in the April 2000 issue of Chûô Kôron, he countered that the advent of the parasite singles was the result of a social and economic structure geared to maintaining the jobs and wages of older workers (see "Don't Blame the Unmarried Breed," Japan Echo, vol. 27, no. 3).In the essay featured in this section, Yamada branches out from his customary topic to take up the related phenomenon of "freeters" (furîtâ), the Japanese term for young people who move from one temporary job to another instead of finding stable employment as a permanent employee.
As Yamada himself notes, he has adopted a position similar to Genda's in explaining the causes of the freeter phenomenon, namely, the lack of good job opportunities. According to a survey by the Japan Institute of Labor, freeters fall into three basic categories: (1) the "on hold" group, consisting of people who have not yet found what they want to do for a living, (2) the "no choice" group, consisting of those who are settling for temporary jobs while searching for permanent employment, and (3) the "dream-pursuing" group, comprising young people trying to work their way toward professional careers.
Yamada, however, argues that all freeters can in fact be characterized as "dreamers who provide a source of cheap, disposable labor." And indeed, it is hard to dispute the contention he made in his 1999 book that all three types are pursuing unrealistic but expedient dreams.
Where women freeters are concerned, we are told that more than half are on the lookout for husbands. One might surmise that a good number are "parasites" hoping to trade in their "hosts" for a husband, conscious of the fact that their parents will not always have the means to support them. Unfortunately, given Japan's ever-rising unemployment rate and deteriorating job conditions, they are unlikely to find a spouse to fit their specifications.
Intense free-market competition, which is now being promoted as the guiding principle for the Japanese economy, operates to keep freeters trapped in limbo. The restaurant industry, for example, is being buffeted by competition so fierce that some fast-food chains have slashed prices by 50% or more. This has been hailed as a victory for free and unfettered competition, but there is a dark side to the picture as well. What keeps the restaurants afloat through all this price-cutting is cheap, disposable labor in the form of young freeters dreaming of better things down the road. Establishments that are nonetheless unable to survive the price war close down, putting these young employees out of work.
It is interesting to note that, while many of the women freeters are hoping to marry, an overwhelming majority of Japanese middle school and high school girls see no need to do so, according to an international survey by the Japan Youth Research Institute released on July 31.
Asked for their opinion of the statement "Everyone must get married," 88% of the Japanese schoolgirls disagreed. This sets Japan apart from the other countries surveyed, where a substantial portion of the schoolgirl respondents agreed with the statement: 30% in France, 38% in South Korea, and 78% in the United States. The survey results also highlighted the pessimism of Japanese teenagers regarding the future. The ratio of respondents of both sexes agreeing with the statement "The new twenty-first century is promising in many ways for humankind" was 86% for the United States, 71% for South Korea, and 64% for France, but only 34% for Japan. To judge from these survey results, children still in school have a grimmer view of life than the young masterless samurai of Japan's bleak job market.
As Yamada argues, Japan must move quickly to rebuild "young people's aspirations in the working world." The administration of Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichirô is talking about creating 5.3 million jobs in the service sector (including emerging industries) over the next five years.
But will these jobs provide a haven for today's freeters, most of whom are equipped with neither the drive of older laid-off workers desperate for reemployment nor the clear-eyed realism of the younger set?
University career counselors have traditionally told students to think 30 years ahead when choosing a career. But who can really see 30 years into the future? Japanese society is in an ongoing state of turmoil, and no one can say what the future will bring. The freeters have a hard time finding permanent employment in today's job market, and planning for the future is close to impossible when the future of Japanese society itself is uncertain. (Kondô Motohiro, Professor, Nihon University)
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