Furita

In the spring of 2000, about 10% of graduates of schools and universities could not find a permanent job, and more than 50% of those who found a part-time job quit over the next three years.

From 2000 to 2009, the number of freaters increased significantly. In 1982, there were 500 thousand freaters, in 1987–700 thousand, 1 million in 1992 and 1.5 million in 1997. In 2002, the number of freaters increased to 2.2 million. According to some estimates, in 2010, there were about 10 million freaters in Japan. Many Japanese people are concerned about the effect of freaters on the state of Japanese society. Freaters usually work in department stores, supermarkets, restaurants and other low-paying and low-skilled jobs. According to a study by the Japan Employment Institute in 2002, the standard working hours of the freer are 4.9 days a week with pay of 139 thousand yen per month ($ 1,300). 2/3 of the freers have never had a full-time job.

The development of the Internet business has given freeloaders the opportunity to work for themselves. Some experts say that the shortage of workers caused by an aging population in Japan will create favorable conditions for job search for freaters.

According to the Japan Employment Institute, freaters are divided into three groups. The first type is those who want to delay the start of their career; the second type - those who want to realize their dream, which is incompatible with the principles of Japanese society; the third type is those who cannot find work before graduating from university. In Japan, there is a system in which large companies hire last-year students a year before graduation ^[1] , and it is very difficult for those who could not find work in this period to be hired by the company. Sometimes this even leads to expulsion from the university. For those who have not graduated from school, the situation is even more complicated.

Difficulties in organizing one's own life

Many freaters live with their parents as single parasites . Japanese parents usually do not force their children to start an independent life. When parents die, freer children have to pay their own housing.

Japanese apartments are often too small for two families. Accordingly, if freaters want to get married, they must find new housing, paid at their own expense, and not at the expense of their parents.

Career Challenges

Starting a career can be difficult for former freelancers, as Japanese companies favor workers who have just graduated from school / university. Large traditional Japanese companies regard the new employee as an investment in the further development of the company, so they try to hire young staff who can work longer for the company and more easily accept its rules.

Often the only option for freaters is to continue to work in low-paying professions, which is a serious obstacle to the formation of their own life. Some freaters become homeless.

Health and retirement insurance

Temporary work usually does not guarantee health insurance and pension payments. The low income of the fritter makes burdensome payments for medical expenses. The main problem of freaters is that the size of the pension is calculated in proportion to the number of years during which a citizen pays contributions to the pension fund, therefore, usually the size of pensions of freaters is small, and they are forced to work even after reaching the standard retirement age .

Freedom of Choice

The positive side of freeriding is freedom of choice and enough free time. Freaters are often engaged in volunteering or community service. If the fritter lives with his parents, he can spend his salary on his own needs.

Impact on Japanese Society

• Freaters are not members of trade unions, which allows them to be freely dismissed.
• Part of the income of the freaters goes to taxes, so they contribute to the development of the Japanese economy.
• Living in the same house with their parents and not having their own car, freeters less pollute the nature than motorists.
• Freeriders starting their careers after 25 years have a significant impact on the modern corporate culture of Japan. This can lead to a change in the hiring system, which will be relevant in the future in connection with the aging of the population.
• The low income of freaters can lead to the fact that they will never have a family and children. This will reduce the birth rate and can lead to economic and social problems due to an aging population, such as underfunding of the Japan Pension Fund. To date, freaters contribute too small amounts to a pension fund or don’t contribute anything at all. The situation may worsen in the future, as the ratio of workers to retirees decreases, and the size of pensions remains the same.
• The Japanese government has established several organizations under the name Young Support Plaza, which would help young people find work. These organizations provide the necessary basic training for finding a job: how to correctly create a resume, how to behave in an interview with a potential employer. But until now, the demand for their services is very low.

• Over-education
• Lone parasite
• Precarization
• Hikikomori

• Faridun Usmonov. The end of the economic miracle? // The Japanese want to work a little, live long and have no children . Delo Weekly (October 15, 2007)
• Tokyo: The Generation of Freaters