Employment Extremes - フリータ　や　ニート　と　過労死　(Freeters, NEETS and Karoushi)
Or
"how I stopped living life and started working life"

Even the briefest casual visitor to Tokyo would agree it's a city of extremes.

Its atmosphere ; From serene shrines to sardine can packed train stations, from glass and steel modern 40 story skyscrapers to corrugated iron prefab houses in suburbia, from the continental sophisticated glamour of Ginza to the seedy sleaze of Shinjuku's Kabukicho .

Its people ; from courteous, cute and polite young ladies to vulgar, manner less middle-aged salary men, from the Luis Vitton dressed make mother proud career girls of Shibuya to the boot polish tanned and Alba Rosa be decaled gyaru of a Harajuku.

Its produce ; from rumours of gold flaked watermelon in Ginza at 100 dollars a pop to the hundred yen (50 pence) shop noodles, from the influx of over priced but highly popular flashy western designer brands to the more discreet homegrown labels for the mind bogglingly rich.

All clichés of the extremities of Tokyo. One that many in the West may or not be familiar with is the culture of employment in Japan. The ideology that a man of working age would be salaried by the same company for the rest of his life: the archetypal salary man. The long hours of working time undertaken, their loyalty to the company, the perseverance, the unpaid overtime. All notions of extremity, clichéd to a certain extent in the West, the Japanese can be seen as bespectacled worker ants, no individual thought , only thinking for the company, shuttled to and from work on bullet trains with little or no free time.

As a foreigner living and working in Japan I was introduced to the working world at one extreme end of employment opportunities presented to foreigners: The eikaiwa or English school. Every year the curious, the college graduates and the burnt out east Asia backpacker set will descend upon Japan in new hoards to serve in Japans finest English language teaching establishments. The equivalent of working at McDonalds, and no pun intended, in front of almost every train station in Japan is a MacDonald's and within apt spitting distance will be an eikaiwa. Here those with dreams of relocating to Japan and integrating with the society will spend almost their entire time delivering dull scripted English lessons to eager house wives and belligerent kids.

It's a rarity, I later found, to break away from eikaiwa and achieve what would be considered a normal job in Japan. If the words "Normal" and "Job" can be used in a single sentence when regarding Japan. I've experience first hand and without doubt that largely many of the stereotypes of Japanese working life are true. Many staff members will work almost unthinkable working hours from early as 5am to as late as 11 or 12 at night, the shame culture of leaving the office before your peers is very present and kudos is earned for only the hard-boiled who will remain till the very last, before even allowing themselves the obligation of going drinking with a higher managerial member of staff. Returning home is not often an option, the explosion of Japan's infamous "capsule hotels" and more recently "manga kissaten" (Luxurious Manga libraries with private booths, comfy sleep easy chairs and readily available instant micro waved foods).

Many have criticized Japan as having a culture of obligation in the workplace where little actual work is done, and it is merely "face value" to stay late at work ,doing little as possible, but again cultural phenomena are pointing to the opposite.The concept of "Karoushi" (過労死 - exceed, toil, die)), was a particular prickly potato in recent years and still Japanese are reluctant to face the reality of the situation. "Karoushi" could be translated as "working yourself to death". Literally.

There are numerous cases of men in their late 40s and 50's feeling the deflatory effects of Japans bubble economy, continuing to work harder and harder to avoid the pinch. The result, overworked, un-rested, underfed, un-healthy and exhausted many have died of heart attacks, strokes and other stress related illness. Still the widows of these unfortunate passed on automatons try to rally their husband's employers for compensation, mainly in the form of unpaid overtime their husbands fulfilled before their deaths. In Japan, in a regular office job, it is common to work 40 hrs of obligatory gratis overtime each month, completely unpaid. Anything over 40 hrs and you receive standard overtime time pay. To give an idea of the amount of overtime some of these karoushi victims were doing, some wives have lobbied companies for payments in the millions of yen range, thousands and thousand of pounds.

Having pointed the extreme, what of the other extreme? In a country that only has next to no unemployment issues, and many work as described above, what could be said for the other end of this spectrum? Do the Japanese have no dole bludgers ? No pikies or chavs ? No apathetic malaise that affects so many other western countries?

The USA has Generation X, France has Les Societeles, Britain has pikies and as each country produces its own slacker underclass, Japan does what it does with all western phenomenons. Takes it, re shapes it and gives it its own spin.

Japan has Freeter's and NEET's - フリータ　and　ニート　

I had first been intrigued and then swiftly insulted when I heard the phrase freeter. A retired salary man sat amidst one of my English lessons decked out in his Airwalk urban camouflage T shirt and baggy pants (clearly enjoying his retirement!)

"When you are telling me about your job and lifestyle it seems like you are a freeter" he quipped.

Curious I asked more and he explained the freeter culture of Japan.

Pronounced "fuh-ree-tah" The word itself is like many modern Japanese words, is borrowed from English. It's not known whether the word springs from "Fleeting" or "Free timer", either way the nuance of the word is soon understood.

Freeters are usually early 20's youth who have "just" graduated from school, college or university, sufficiently educated but lacking opportunity or moreover motivation. As almost 99% of Japanese youth will live with their parents until they are married, they have neither rent nor housekeeping obligations. A house with a bed is there, food is on the table, not ready to enter the machine, not wanting to enter the machine, but consumer culture calls and Japan is a kingdom of capitalist wants.

So your 21. Just out of college, you've had fun and want some more fun, I mean "Look at dad!? Coming home at 12:30 stinking of fast food and sake, balding, stressed out and washed out!"

Meantime, there are Edwin Jeans to buy, Ipod Shuffles, the latest digicam, mp3 player, GPS enabled mobile phones awaiting, libraries of trashy manga to read and the latest hand held portable gaming systems, lest we forget the freeter accessory du jour, the Louis Vitton handbag or wallet. But a job, "No way man that's for the slaves!". You want a job that's a no brainer, flexible working times with long shifts on, long shifts off, that pays well but as much free time as you can get for shopping.

As such, many Japanese youth falling into the freeter routine will adopt the easiest freeter job : The convenience Store. In Japan the number of convenience stores is staggering, worthy an article alone, Sunkus, Family Mart, Daily Yamazaki, Seven Eleven, MiniStop, Lawson, AMPM, Circle K. The choice is staggering as are the amenities they offer. Not just a convenience store, but bank, stationers, liquor store, post office, print shop, etc rolled into one. Though the job still is considered a no brainer, the work remains long and hard and freeters are expected to offer a service that is unsurpassed due to Japans "okyakusama" (honourable guest) consumer culture. These freeters have to use all the honorific language Japanese has to offer and praise the customer with gusto.

But if three18 hour shifts are all you have to do in a week and at the end of that week your being paid handsomely enough to splash out on dining out with friends to exchange stories of this weeks designer purchases without the worry of rent, utilities or daily cooking, it's a life that can seems and is proving to be very tempting for many 20 something's.

Its quite odd when being served by a freeter to hear a phrase that literally means "o customer-god please grace us again with your visit" spoken in a dead-pan, indifferent drone just because you've bought a can of juice form the local store, they're polite, but that politeness is driven by desire for the next pink mint coloured, girls only edition of the Ipod Nano hitting stores soon. Given the option for a freeter life, I would be polite too.

"Why worry about home life ? Mom does the washing and cooks, dad pays the bills, I have my room and my stuff and that's all I need". So my stuff and my room, that's all I need. A drive that has driven a newer extreme case of the Freeter.

The NEET - Not in Education, Employment or Training. It couldn't be spelt out any simpler.

While Freeters appreciate their leisure time, NEETS could be seen as leisure junkies. These guys are hardcore. As mentioned before, staying at home with every whim met, freeters are driven to work only for expendable income, but what if mom and dad are richer enough to provide that?

Commonly, between jobs, many Japanese staying at home will be given an allowance, just enough to get by on, and for the softer touched parents with dad earning bigger bucks, the allowance naturally goes up. Its an increasing trend as those salary men who retain the type of salaries on offer during the bubble economy are giving more spending power and financial leverage in the countries first recession. Having a son or daughter (though predominantly male) that stays at home watching TV, reading comics and playing games all day well into their 30's while leeching of their ant-like worker parental units is an option that is affordable to some in Japan.

Although it seems like slacker heaven, as I mentioned in the beginning, Japan is a country of extremes. Staying at home every day, in your room. You've got the best in fantastical escapist entertainment, your console, your comic books, your easy on the brain daytime TV ; delivering whole worlds of fantasy and non reality.Surely a price must be paid for such a lavish life of leisure ?

Many Neets have succumbed to this other extreme. Hikkikomori: the socially withdrawn. Almost reverting to a womb like safety buffer, some Hikkikomori have stayed in their rooms with no social interaction other than TV, games and manga for years on end, as extreme as cases with mothers leaving trays of food outside their sons rooms, as eating with family at the dinner table has become a non issue.