Abstract
The objective of this paper is to link the structural factor (employment structure) and subjective factor (notion of labor) concerned with the generation process of permanent part-time youth (Freeters) by considering their life histories in terms of “hope.”
Based on the ongoing research conducted over a period of five years on three male Freeters, the following facts have come to light:
(1) Freeters are located at the lower strata of full and part-time jobs.
(2) Freeters cannot envision their future career paths in either employment style.
(3) Due to current modern labor ethics, they cannot form a subgroup that acknowledges their employment style and present-time orientation.
(4) Freeters are under pressure from labor ethics, which insist that they do “decent” work.
(5) To escape from such a double-bind state, they cannot help but look for “hope.”
To put it briefly, present Japanese society needs flexible laborers on the one hand but cannot permit them to be flexible laborers on the other. This kind of structural tension drives the young workers to “hope.” But even “hope” does not dissolve the structural tension. On the contrary, it works to prolong the structural tension itself.
