The new rallying cry of nonregular workers may become 'Precariats of the world, unite!'</PARAGRAPH>
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<TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Young people march down a street in Tokyo in late April to call for improvements in working conditions for 'freeters.'
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<PARAGRAPH>'Precariat' is a new Japanese word combining the English words 'precarious,' referring to the insecurity of part-time and contract work, and 'proletariat.'</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Part-time workers dubbed 'freeters' and nonregular contract employees, who together accounted for about a third of the overall workforce of some 51 million in 2006, are increasingly standing in open rebellion against the wide-spread claim in the 'self-responsibility' debate that the youth of today prefer an unsettled life.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>On a beautiful sunny day in late May, about 100 young 'costume players' dressed up as 'anime' –
characters marched down a main street in Fukuoka, chanting "the recent business recovery was possible because of freeters."
Many of the demonstrators were people classified as "working poor," who get by on a monthly wage of around 100,000 yen.
The rally was staged under the sponsorship of the Freeter Union of Fukuoka, a union set up last June for nonregular workers. Among those joining in was Karin Amamiya, a 32-year-old writer.
"Corporations cajoled young people into working for them for low pay. Businesses tossed them aside after getting all they could out of them," she shouted to passersby.
