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The story
A thread appeared on 5ch’s Newsspeed VIP board, started by a 27-year-old NEET with bipolar disorder who wrote that he’d be heading to the unemployment office (Hello Work) the day after tomorrow. Early replies focused on practical advice — job training programs, job-hunting tips — but the conversation gradually morphed into a heated debate over the gender gap, with claims like “women don’t struggle to find jobs or relationships even with an employment gap.” Late in the thread, a regular poster going by the handle “Kasanobon,” who claimed to earn 15 million yen a year, barged in — and when pressed for proof of income, the screenshot he posted only deepened doubts about whether he was telling the truth.
What people said
If you're living alone, you can get 100,000 yen a month.
I'll definitely find something good!!!
I live with my parents, so I don't qualify…
Must be nice being a woman — you can land a part-time job in no time. I've got nothing left to rely on but disability hiring.
I don't think it's about being a woman, I think it's about not having an employment gap.
Even with a gap, it's still easier than it is for men.
If you were a guy with bipolar disorder stuck in part-time jobs, there's no way you'd ever land a girlfriend — so be thankful you were born a woman.
Well, for what it's worth, I'm technically the eldest daughter, born somewhere between "able-bodied" and "disabled" myself.
But you do have a boyfriend, don't you? I've never had a partner in 27 years.
No matter how much you try to talk yourself down, the fact that you currently have a boyfriend — and have had several exes before him — already makes you a winner.
In high school, someone filmed me confessing to a guy I liked, it got spread around, and I became a laughingstock. That trauma is why I've never had a partner since.
Yeah, that'll leave a scar. That's rough.
So just stay out of my thread already. Nothing pisses me off more than someone who's bottom-of-the-barrel like me but still has a partner just because she's a woman.
And here I thought we were finally getting along. That's sad.
I get how you feel. Only someone with nothing can understand the feelings of someone with nothing.
So you went to a science-track class and just ate up all the guys, huh. Don't go calling yourself "bottom of the barrel" after that.
See, it's all right there in that last line: "I'm not like you people. I was able to change. I'm blessed. I'm a winner. I'm not at the bottom."
It's not about gender. It's about whether you have a partner. Dump your boyfriend right now and you're welcome back.
That's not it. If it were just about gender, none of this would be happening.
The fact that you don't even get that says it all about you.
I only dated two guys in the science-track class, and I didn't "eat up" either of them.
Then let me be the one you eat up.
But you still ended up with a boyfriend, didn't you.
Well, whenever I confessed to a guy I liked, he pretty much always said yes.
Meanwhile my confession video got spread all over the internet. What is this difference.
Someone with a face good enough to succeed almost every time she confesses has no business in my thread.
Compared to my friends, I haven't accomplished anything. They're all full-time employees putting real money into their households.
Wow, I'm so impressive — unemployed and somehow still putting money into the household. (sarcasm)
Yeah, maybe. But being right isn't the same as saying what he actually needs to hear.
But for a guy to end up here and even set a fixed handle name (a "kotehan" — unusual on an anonymous board like this), something must have really gone wrong for you to hit rock bottom. What happened?
I'm not rock bottom. I still pull in 15 million yen a year.
It's less about "what happened" and more that I'd have to explain what my whole existence even was.
Well, I won't get into that.
Still, you're right that just being here means I'm at least not exactly fulfilled.
Honestly, that's just impressive.
Lying just because you hate being called a NEET is pretty lame.
I have acquaintances and friends too, you know — I don't want to say anything that could get me identified.
Just pull up your assets in some app and screenshot it, or take a nice clean screenshot of your pay stub or something.
I'm not an employee, so there's no pay stub. I've got purchase orders, invoices, and contracts, but I can't show those.
Besides, if I were really a NEET, there's no way I'd know this much about taxes.
Just hurry up and show something already. The last guy who claimed this actually posted a screenshot.
Last year it was 10 million.
I could show you a scrap of my tax return, but you'd just say it's photoshopped or AI-generated anyway.
I didn't even bother adjusting my income below 9 million to dodge the progressive tax brackets, so I'm getting hit hard on taxes — cut me some slack.
Fine, just show it then.
Here.
It's all blurry, I can't make out anything. And what's with that "A-I-U-E-O" gibberish (Japanese placeholder text, like using "ABCDE" as dummy filler)?
Profit margins vary by industry, but with 10 million yen in annual revenue, what you actually take home could be about the same as a regular company employee, or even less.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The “job training gets you 100,000 yen a month” system mentioned in the thread refers to Japan’s Vocational Training Benefit. It comes with eligibility requirements tied to household income and assets, so simply living alone doesn’t automatically qualify you for the payment. Separately, when a poster claimed a 15-million-yen annual income late in the thread, another user holding a Level 2 bookkeeping certification pointed out that the figure shown was “revenue” rather than actual income, and that take-home pay in some industries can be little different from that of an ordinary company employee — a useful lens for judging the truth of this kind of “income bragging.” Another notable feature of the thread was that opinions on whether men and women face different levels of difficulty in job hunting and dating never quite reconciled, with the debate running to the end without reaching any real conclusion.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Newsspeed VIP) thread “27-Year-Old Bipolar NEET Heading to Hello Work the Day After Tomorrow.”
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