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Employment
  1. Group Employment Trips
  2. Spring Employment Season
  3. Hiring New Graduates
  4. Hiring New High School Graduates
  5. The Japanese Employment System
  6. Lifetime Employment
  7. The Seniority Wage System (nenkō joretsu)
  8. The Bonus System
  9. Enterprise Unions in Japan
  10. Enterprise Union Cooperation
  11. Unemployment Insurance
  12. Dual Tracks in Female Occupations: Ippan Shoku (Non-Career Track) and Sōgō Shoku (Career Track)
  13. Increase of Female Employees
  14. Female dominant occupations
  15. Post-Retirement Employment and Social Security
  16. Marriage Retirement and Retirement Ages for Men and Women
  17. Relations between Large and Small Companies
  18. Part-time Female Workers
  19. What Kinds of Work Do People Do in Japan?
  20. Freeter/ Furita: Part-Time Workers in Japan
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Freeter/ Furita: Part-Time Workers in Japan
Japanese high school and college graduates between the ages of 15 to 34 are increasingly choosing short-term, part-time jobs instead of fixed, long-term careers. These people are called freeter or furita, a Japanese word that first came into use in 1987. Furita is a combination of the English word “free” with the German word arbeiter meaning “worker.” The new word, freeter, loosely meaning “free-timer”, is applied mainly to young Japanese people and is a separate category from those who go back to work part-time (paato) after marriage or retirement. Part of the reason for the rise of the furita is the desire that the younger generation has for more free; time than would not be available if they worked fulltime at a single company. Other reasons for the freeter lifestyle may be dissatisfaction with the mainstream salaryman career path, or a desire to experience different types of work. The majority of freeter fall into three main groups: the “moratorium type,” who are only waiting before starting a career; the “dream pursuit type,” who need the free time to work on their real goals, such as becoming a musician or writer; and the “no alternative type” who have no other work options after graduation because they lack the skill, opportunities, or motivation to secure a proper career job. Many freeter hope to start a proper career later in life, but for the time being work at low-paying, low-skilled jobs at convenience stores, supermarkets, and fast-food restaurants, which offer no insurance or benefits.
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