College students habitually complain about being overloaded with study. Not Shingo Hori though, who demands to be allowed to study more.

"It's ridiculous. We don't have time to mature as people or as students," says the 21-year-old philosophy major at prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo. "We're forced to spend all our time looking for work."

With job-hunting season peaking, Hori took his grievance to the streets around Waseda last month with a group of about 30 other students who brandished slogans that had some observers doing a double take.