The traditional images of the Japanese "salaryman" and "office lady" are under threat from an unanticipated source: the young men and women expected to step into those roles. What some see as a crisis in Japan's employment picture others recognize as a potentially lasting social change. The Labor Ministry has just revealed in an annual report that the number of young Japanese between the ages of 15 and 34 who choose to work part-time has increased threefold in the last decade and a half. The estimated total of 1.51 million young part-timers as of the end of 1997 marks an increase of 500,000 from five years earlier.
Yet the ministry fails to satisfactorily address the reasons. Senior members of the political and business establishments, members of an older generation, appear puzzled by this development in a country where finding a full-time, lifetime job was long considered the goal, particularly for university graduates. Today, however, many prefer to be what the young call "freeters," a combination of the English word "free" with the German word for worker, "Arbeiter." Since the concept of lifetime employment is fading, there would be less surprise if business leaders not only kept more fully abreast of rapidly changing social attitudes among the young, but also acknowledged their role in bringing them about.
Amid continuing economic uncertainty and growing job insecurity, more and more young Japanese are opting to work only enough hours to support their casual lifestyles. It helps, of course, if they live at home with their parents. For some youths today, the status once automatically associated with full-time employment at a major corporation is a thing of the past, a relic of their fathers' generation. The bloom can wear off quickly when the full-time job involves long hours of "service" (unpaid) overtime and being discouraged from taking even the limited vacation time available.