Nanae Okubo was "inspired." Shunta Taka-yama was "waaaah, all fired up."
The heady mixture of pompom-waving cheerleaders, chants drawn from ancient warrior purification rituals, drummers, a brass band and ear-splitting rock music had gotten the two 19-year-old Tokyo students psyched up for their coming challenge.
They are about to start looking for work.
PHOTO: AP
The two were among some 3,000 students from business and technology colleges who filled an outdoor auditorium in a central Tokyo park earlier this week for an event aimed at giving them a rousing send-off on their journey into the corporate world.
Crowding the stage and screaming at the cheerleaders, the students, identically clad in severe grey suits, weren't behaving like the salarymen and women of tomorrow, even if they looked like them.
But their exuberance masks a serious reality.
Times are tough for young workers in Japan. Unemployment in the 15-24 age group is 10 percent, twice the overall rate and double what it was 10 years ago.
Japan's decade-long slowdown has pushed the unemployment rate up to record highs as companies cut costs by shedding older workers, closing subsidiaries and holding off on new hires.
"Listening to older students I realize that things are getting more difficult each year," Okubo said, struggling to make herself heard over the brass band's rendition of Frankie Valli's Can't take my eyes off you.
With a recovery gathering steam, there are signs that employment conditions are getting better, with more jobs available. But the slowdown has left a legacy of problems for the economy.
Fewer young workers means less tax income and welfare payments to boost falling government revenues and prop up the ailing pension and health systems needed to cope with Japan's rapidly aging society.
In addition, poor prospects and a more individualistic outlook on life have seen some 4 million young people opt for a life of casual job-hopping, more than double the number 10 years ago.
This has raised government concern about whether Japan will have enough skilled workers to maintain its industrial productivity, a problem that some say will take more than an economic recovery to sort out.
"The worrying aspect is the skill mismatch angle," said Richard Jerram, chief economist at ING Securities.
"Job vacancies are running at record levels, generally in highly value-added manufacturing and information services," he said.
"It appears that many young people may have spent their university years playing Game Boy but they are not qualified as IT engineers."
Remedying this, he said would mean taking a look at the education system, which may be too generalist.
However, the government may take some heart from the positive approach of Okubo, Takayama and several other students who took time away from the fun and games to talk about their prospects.
All were aware of how difficult the challenge was, but none was interested in the casual labor route.
"I don't think it's bad for people to become casual workers, if they are working toward some dream of their own," said Takayama.
"But I want a regular job," he said.
Takeo Ariga, a goatee-sporting 21-year-old would-be public official, said people shouldn't just blame the economy.
"High school students are too superficial when they think about work. They need to think more seriously."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the