The objective of this study was to identify the processes and conditions of the career independence of "freeters," which is a process they use for selecting career paths to become financially independent of their parents and to realize personal and societal values. This paper is divided into four sections: First, we briefly review the discussion on freeters in Japan and point out their psychological problems. Second, we examine the relationship between the freeters' career patterns and the normal ones, which are considered desirable in traditional career development theories, and indicate the shortcomings of these theories. Then, we introduce a new theoretical framework called the career construction theory (Savickas, 2002) for explaining the career paths of freeters. Third, in discussing the career independence of freeters, we describe the importance of the idea of time perspectives, and clarify how to support freeters in their independence by considering their time perspectives. Fourth, we suggest practical possibilities for providing support to freeters. Finally, based on the above discussions, we speculate the issues that are important for examining the career independence of freeters and list the prospects for the new stream of adolescent psychology.
