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The story
A thread titled “Let’s seriously think about how to save (get working) NEETs today” popped up on 5ch’s Newsflash VIP board, but the discussion quickly drifted away from concrete solutions and into a clash over whether NEETs are simply “spoiled” or victims of structural issues like Japan’s new-graduate hiring system and academic credentialism. The original poster, who revealed he’s a civil servant earning 6.2 million yen a year, drew fire from those arguing “it’s rich to have an easy job yourself while telling others to take low-paying work,” while others fired back that “there are jobs anyone can get hired for — not working is just being spoiled.” Plenty of replies also pointed out how bullying-driven school refusal and the difficulty of re-entering the job market after missing the new-graduate hiring window complicate the picture.
What people said
Even if they want to work, they can't if no company says yes.
This.
Though NEETs being NEETs, they'd probably still be picky about where they work.
If they're fine with low pay, there are probably plenty of understaffed companies that'd hire them without much fuss.
Just give them the same conditions and pay as everyone else working normally.
Even setting NEETs aside — if you're the type sitting in a cool room, snacking, tapping away at a keyboard for a 6-million-yen-a-year desk job, and someone told you “go pick up dog poop outdoors for 2 million yen instead,” of course you'd refuse.
NEETs assume that what Re: #7 described is just how the world normally works.
But in reality there are plenty of guys out there picking up dog poop outdoors for 2 million yen a year.
Those guys get looked down on though, and NEETs look down on them too.
But if they entered the workforce as they are now, that outdoor poop-picking job is all they could end up with, and they'd get mocked for it.
That fear is what keeps them from stepping into society.
That's not it.
If everyone were doing the poop-picking job, people would think “yeah, guess I've gotta do it too.”
The problem is telling only this side “go pick up poop for 2 million yen” while you yourself have a higher salary doing a completely different, fun-looking job.
In most cases,
to move up to a higher position,
you have to prove yourself doing the poop-picking work first.
“Fun-looking”… really?
Even while being chased down by deadlines and pressure the whole time?
There's almost nobody coasting easy and pulling a high salary.
And honestly, I don't even envy that.
If you don't have to work, of course you're not going to — that's just normal.
There's almost no case where rich parents just let their kid be a NEET for life.
If the parents are wealthy, they're usually on top of things — that's how you get a soft landing. But if the parents are foolish, it's game over.
No, households that let a kid stay a NEET are actually reasonably well-off — at the very least, not everyone in the family needs to work.
So what job does OP (Re: #1) actually do?
Not trolling, just answer, why don't you?
What's your annual income?
Can't answer?
Civil servant, 6.2 million yen a year.
Well then, why not hire them at your own workplace?
Surely you're not saying you get a cushy 6.2-million-yen desk job while telling someone else to grind through a grueling 2-million-yen job? Even an idiot can tell that's unreasonable.
Or— d-don't tell me— you're planning to just dump the NEET problem onto some other company? That's appallingly irresponsible.
I seriously can't understand that mindset.
It's the result of what you've built up over time.
If you haven't built anything up, then go put in the effort.
And that's the end of that.
Can't, I'm a civil servant.
I'll introduce them to the pickle factory my relative runs instead.
Don't go being picky after I've done that much for you.
There's no way I could hire them.
For the good of society.
Less trash lying around is a nice thing, right?
NEET logic: “Once my parents die, I'll just go on welfare.”
^
That's the one thing I want to stop.
Also, Japan's heading into a labor shortage, and all kinds of services are going to get worse because of it — caregiving, food service, logistics.
What's shocking is that you're trying to land your dream job in that situation.
Be grateful to whatever company is even willing to hire you and just work. Seriously, stop being spoiled.
You know it's always the guy telling others to “try harder” who's never actually tried hard himself.
If you'd genuinely put in effort, you'd know effort doesn't always pay off — so you couldn't irresponsibly tell others to “just try harder.”
Guys like this usually haven't put in real effort at all — they call it “effort,” but it's really just stuff that costs them nothing.
Seriously.
This guy calls trivial stuff “effort” and lectures people to just do it.
His idea of “effort” is probably something like:
(grumbling “ugh, so tired” while cramming for entrance exams with friends)
(grumbling “ugh, so tired” while having a blast at university with friends)
(grumbling “ugh, so tired” while cheerfully landing your “dream job” through new-grad hiring with everyone around you)
(grumbling “ugh, so tired” while your girlfriend keeps you satisfied and you breeze through new-hire training with coworkers)
(grumbling “ugh, so tired” while getting laid nonstop by your girlfriend, occasionally cramming for some throwaway certification, and picking your nose your way up to a raise)
That's about the level of “effort” we're talking — not really effort at all.
He's only ever lived a life that soft, so he probably doesn't get that once you miss university and the new-grad hiring window, society doesn't even let you attempt this kind of “effort” anymore — you're flatly denied the chance to even try for your “dream job.”
Then just go do the job you want to do?
NEETs assume it's normal for society to give people age-appropriate jobs with age-appropriate pay and treatment.
Personally I think just working at all, at any age, is admirable — but in reality, if it's not “appropriate for your age,” you get mocked for it.
NEETs are afraid of that, so they aim for a come-from-behind home run — landing a well-treated job out of nowhere — which is why they're obsessed with getting certifications.
NEETs are weirdly fixated on qualifications, aren't they?
That's not it.
They're not thinking about being mocked by others.
It's easy to just write that off as “being spoiled.”
It's effortless, and lecturing people from above while basking in a sense of superiority feels great.
But the result of that attitude is Japan's current 5 million middle-aged NEETs.
I think that's exactly what happens when nobody bothers to ask “why” from the person's own side.
There's probably a lot of variety among NEETs, but I think some of them could absolutely reintegrate into society.
I think the right move is to start by helping the group that looks relatively easiest to bring back first.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
In Japan, the deeply entrenched practice of “new-graduate lump-sum hiring” (shinsotsu ikkatsu saiyō) means anyone who doesn’t land a full-time job straight out of school tends to be at a disadvantage in the job market from then on — and it’s long been pointed out that this structure makes it hard for people who missed the new-graduate window due to bullying or school refusal to get a second chance. Where opinions in the thread split was over where to draw the line between calling this “individual laziness” versus “a flaw in the social system,” and neither side showed much sign of budging. There were also concerns raised about reliance on welfare, and about the psychology of chasing a single certification for a comeback, but much of the back-and-forth tended to slide into emotional exchanges built around each other’s income or career history — and how little in the way of concrete solutions actually came up is something that’s easy to miss from the thread text alone.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Newsflash VIP) thread “Let’s seriously think about how to save (get working) NEETs today.”
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