Review of: Home alone: the individualization of young, urban Japanese singles

Richard Ronald and Yosuke Hirayama, Environment and Planning

A 2009, volume 41, pages 2836 ^ 2854

Hypothesis• Greater change between generations then in the past• Major cause – new/lost generation not able to follow

homeownership path– Jobs missing– Economic insecurity as way of life– Lost decade results in lost generation

• Results– Fewer marriages, families, children– More isolation, individualization, atomization– Community break down, social malaise– Easily seen in the housing sector

Declining identification with “middle” Middle Class • More Lower Middle Class• Slight increase of Upper Middle Class

…stock market shed more than 80% of its value between 1989 and 2003, while housing property values declined by around 40%

Post War Miracle BubbleLost Decade/Generation

Home ownership Declines Rapidly Starting around 1980sDecline speeds up when Bubble burstsHits Younger cohorts disproportionately…Even though housing values dropped in the 1990s, home purchase still requires taking on substantial debt, while job security and seniority-based wage increases, necessary for servicing mortgage debt have been undermined.

Family and household shifts • proportion of nuclear households (married couple and children) dropped below 30% in 2005• while the number of single and couple-only households has almost doubled since 1980 and now accounts for half of all households

• Fertility rates peaked in 1947 at 4.3• 2004 dropped to 1.29. • more than 20% of the population is now over 65.

“Moreover, while postwar generations had stable jobs, could build up considerable owner-occupied property assets, and witnessed substantialeconomic improvements, post bubble generations have experienced destabilizing labor markets, limited access to independent family housing, and volatile economic conditions.”

Is insecurity driving later marriages???

Three Major Consequences

1. The decline of company society – less job security and income

2. The `freeter' generation – more temporary part-time dead-end jobs

• In 2000 it was estimated that 23% of new university graduates fell into the freeter category (Asahi Shinbun 2000)

• not entering a career- track job on leaving university constitutes a considerable risk …become effectively shut out of the middle-class mainstream [forever] by taking this path

Freeters are “disposable workers” can include college graduates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UurnM6Q_Pr4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akb5ZhXcEwc

The working poor in Japan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smuPr0tqJwQ&feature=player_detailpage

Look at this carefully/critacally, it is from an Iranian Government Sponsored web site.

From CNN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaxgmmjNrpA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVnm-QBsB9s&feature=related

Three Major Consequences

3. Loser dogs and dokushin kizoku -- urban unmarried people who purchase luxury goods, travel, and generally enjoy a life of dependence on their parent's wealth.

• `selfish life of singles', particularly women, became associated with the `problems' of delayed marriage and declining birth rates (Nakano and Wagatsuma, 2004).

• Single women over 30 without children have consequently been labeled makeinu, or `loser dogs' (Sakai, 2003)

Home alone syndrome

1. Parasite singles -- adult children2. Social policy and net-cafe¨ refugees3. 1 K'ers and single renters

Parasite Singles

• Children who remain in the home, without paying any bills or contributing to domestic tasks• Huge climb 1980 -2005 23.9% to 42.6% aged 25 - 29, 7.6% to 24% aged 30 – 34• Why?? It has been suggested they expect a decline in the quality of life should they become independent or get married (Hirayama and Ronald, 2008).

Internet cafés and homelessA tiny Tokyo apartment rents for around $1250 per month. As of 2009, Japan is experiencing serious economic recession. Finding even low-paid jobs is becoming increasingly difficult. Mainly young homeless people have, for $15-$25 per night, been staying in Internet cafés, where they get an individual room and a shower, television, soft drinks and even Internet access.

http://inventorspot.com/articles/japan_internet_cafes_house_homeless_5687

BBC Reporthttp://boingboing.net/2009/03/19/people-live-in-tiny.html

1 K’ers are people living in tiny efficiency apartments where there is one room that doubles also as the Kitchen (K) term also refers to people who make $1k or less per month

30m2 is about 20x15 feet – includes bathroom say 5 by 5 for bathroom and you’re down to 15 by 10 feet put a bed in there and you are left with about 9 feet by 7 feet, now put in a dresser and table and computer and soon you wonder about a person.

1 K'ers and single renters

Size of my wife’s old apartment

Current rent, call to reserve

Conclusions

• Major shift is occurring to Japanese society• This is being heavily fueled by an inability of

the young to climb onto (not up!) the home ownership ladder

• How might this effect Confucianism?• What might be in store for the USA?

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/japans-rootless-and-restless-workers/

How Japan would like to see itself for kids: glorious past http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpMVGgwfMcA

Could this happen here?

May 12, 2013