College students in Japan can no longer expect a good, comfortable life. Many of them feel they are confronting multi-faceted challenges not known to previous generations.
"We are facing a really yabai (chancy) time," says one male junior student of a prestigious private university in Tokyo. He is one of the desperate third-year students already looking for jobs for his post-graduation life starting in April next year.
Such an early job hunt is a common practice in Japan. He reads and speaks English and Russian and has good grades. And yet, he says, it is very tough for him now and perhaps for many decades to come. Such gloomy prospects are shared by many of his peers.
About three out of every 10 university students graduating this March -- the end of Japan's academic year -- have not found regular jobs yet. In spring last year, 19.3 per cent of the total new graduates, or 107,000 graduates, left school with no full-time, regular job. (New Straits Times)
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