"The Youth Unemployment Problem in Japan and 'the Discourse of YARITAIKOTO'"
HASHIGUCHI Shoji
last update: 20151224
The Youth Unemployment Problem in Japan and "the Discourse of YARITAIKOTO"
HASHIGUCHI Shoji
Abstract:
In this essay we analyze "the discourse of YARITAIKOTO [what one hopes to do]," through rethinking the
previous academic works about young part-time workers' orientations toward "YARITAIKOTO." "The discourse
of YARITAIKOTO" to examine in this essay does not include all of such discourses, but only that related to the
discussion of the youth unemployment problem.
Not only young part-time workers but university students refer to what they hope to do. This means that
they make "the discourse of YARITAIKOTO." However, previous academic works analyze only young part-time
workers' such discourses and their orientation to do what they hope to do. This orientation is called
"YARITAIKOTO orientation" in those works. The purpose of this essay is to analyze what such previous works
bring and to show the structure of "the discourse of YARITAIKOTO," including scholars' discourses of
"YARITAIKOTO."
"YARITAIKOTO" makes young people subjects. But at the same time, they become subjects of the modern
labor market. As its result, they are exploited by companies. The previous academic works about young part-time
workers' "YARITAIKOTO orientation" help this process of subjectification and exploitation, while those
works were intended to help the young people.
Keywords: Youth unemployment, Freeter, University graduates, Yaritaikoto, Discourse
REV: 20151224