People in their 40s and 50s face employment struggles due to low wages. Solutions are needed as both public and private sectors work to improve conditions.
Amid concerns about labor shortages and rising prices, both the public and private sectors are rushing to improve working conditions, including raising salaries. The movement to raise “starting salaries” is accelerating, with 75.6% of private companies raising their starting salaries in fiscal 2024 (Survey by the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training), and in fiscal 2025, starting salaries are scheduled to increase by approximately 40,000 yen for Self-Defense Force members and approximately 30,000 yen for national civil servants (university graduates and general employees). While the treatment of young people is improving, many people in the so-called “Lost Generation,” those in their 40s and early 50s who began looking for work after the collapse of the bubble economy during the employment ice age, are said to still be in unstable employment, with non-regular jobs and low wages. They are sometimes called the Lost Generation, or the forgotten generation, but this generation should be in the prime of their working lives and active in the workplace. However, there are many complaints that they are unable to become permanent employees and that those over 45 are no longer eligible for vocational training benefits. How can we save this generation? “Abema Prime” discussed the current situation and future solutions together with experts who are consulted on a daily basis. ◼ Current situation of the “Lost Generation” in their 40s to early 50s Regarding the situation where younger people are being treated well but improvements in treatment for the Ice Age Generation are stagnating, Tetsuya Kojima, representative of the Ice Age Generation Union, said, “Young people have a small population, and it’s a seller’s market right now, so it’s inevitable that wages will rise as a market principle. “But there’s no denying the feeling that the Ice Age generation in their 40s and early 50s are being left behind.” The Ice Age Generation Union receives a variety of inquiries. “We receive many consultations from people who have worked non-regularly for a long time and are having difficulty finding employment, or who are aiming to obtain difficult qualifications but have not passed, which means they are unemployed for a long time and it is now difficult for them to get regular employment,” he said. Hiroyuki Hiroyuki, the founder of 2channel, said, “If you’re in your 20s, you’re young, so even if you don’t have any skills, you’ll still be hired. Since the Ice Age generation lacks skills and is not in particularly good physical condition, they are not hired. Even if they use unemployment insurance to go to vocational training schools and acquire skills, they have never actually done the work, and so there is a feeling that, ‘There’s no way I can become a permanent employee just by studying in a classroom,'” he pointed out. Kojima also said, “I was rejected because of my age and work experience. Even if you work hard at vocational training, you may not get hired. If possible, if they were to try working in the actual workplace just once so that they could acquire practical skills, the results would be a little different. Even if it’s difficult to adopt it permanently, we would appreciate it if you could try it out for a while. I am often rejected based on my application documents because of my age and work experience, so I don’t even get to the interview stage. I want people to get rid of prejudice. Even among people who have been working non-regularly for a long time, there are quite a few who have skills. I hope that companies will find such people.” Regarding the Ice Age generation’s “sense of relative deprivation,” sociologist and Konan University professor Abe Masahiro said, “The gap with older generations is huge. “The older bubble generation had envisioned getting a job, getting married, and owning their own home all the way through elementary, middle, and high school, but now they have a strong feeling that their future has suddenly been snatched away,” he explained. Furthermore, former House of Councillors member Otokita Shun commented, “It is a huge problem that people of the Ice Age Generation had few opportunities. In my opinion, the only solution is to increase employment fluidity. We would like to make everyone full-time employees, but a company’s financial resources are limited. In Japan, once you become a full-time employee it is difficult to fire you, and you remain employed until the end under the lifetime employment system. If that happens, the younger generation won’t have a chance. We need to create a system that fluidizes the labor market and gives equal opportunities,” he said, while commenting on past policies, “Reforms were only one-sided. While the dispatch law has been expanded, full-time employee labor unions have been working hard to “protect workers’ rights,” but the barriers between regular and non-regular employment have not been broken down, and the number of non-regular employment quotas has only increased. “We need to implement reforms as a package,” he said. Continued below [abema times] 2021/12/7 (Sat) 11:02 * Previous thread.
>>1 Aren’t they just running away? In reality, there are people on x and nera who are trying their best to survive even in harsh low-level jobs. I make too many excuses for not wanting to work.
It’s impossible unless you have a certain level of skill.
I graduated during the ice age and have been working for black companies, living on low wages as a subcontractor for NTT, NEC, Fujitsu, so work somehow comes my way.
>>10 I’m also in the ice age, but I’m a prime contractor. When I asked the subcontractor, I found out that they weren’t just a subcontractor but a sub-subcontractor, so it seems like it would be a difficult job. There is a labor shortage at the moment, so if you have IT skills, why not try changing jobs and aim to become a prime contractor? About 20% of our employees have changed jobs.
If you don’t care about the job, there are a ton of jobs out there, but having a job where you just type away on a computer at a desk feels like playing some kind of mysterious game called Life.
>>23 The only thing the unemployed and part-time working generation can do is care for the elderly. It will take some physical strength though. I work in IT, but if I were told to start learning Java or Python and write bug-free programs now, I don’t think I’d be able to do it. In the future, we’ll have AI create the programs and have experts review them.
The Ice Age generation has little savings, so we’ll definitely see a huge increase in welfare payments in the future. Hiroyuki warns of the reality of people in their 40s only having 400,000 yen in savings! “No no no, what are you going to do?”
The rate of job offers was the lowest after the Lehman Shock. At the very least, it’s clearly lower than the period before the Ice Age. If you were 22 when you graduated from college, you’d be around 36 now.
>>29 The Ice Age Generation was born because of mild deflation caused by an aging population and a delayed response to the collapse of the bubble economy due to a “politicized Diet where the ruling and opposition parties are in a stalemate and unable to make decisions.” If the number of opposition parties who cannot debate increases and the ruling and opposition parties become evenly matched, the Diet will not be able to make any decisions and we will end up giving birth to another generation of people who suffered from the Ice Age. Furthermore, it is the Democratic Party government’s mismanagement that has extended the lost 20 years by 10 years. What Japan needs first is to develop an opposition party that can debate competently; if the ruling and opposition parties continue to have equal seats in parliament while remaining an incompetent opposition party, we will only produce another Ice Age generation. >>1.
Civil service should be the last job for people who want to work but can’t. Used for judgment. If the government cannot hire people, they will immediately be given welfare benefits.
People in their 40s and 50s will be leading Japan for the next 20 years, so Japan will change dramatically from now on. This is a generation that doesn’t give a damn about the Liberal Democratic Party or the elderly.
Companies: “Considering the cost of hiring incompetent people, it would be better for them to stay quiet and receive welfare” Government: “We won’t allow Japanese people with all limbs to receive welfare” The irony is that it is this country’s organizations that are forcing people to turn to the dark side.
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