The Slackers Rise Up; Once dismissed as lazy youth, Japan's army of the underemployed are starting to demand more work.

Byline: Akiko Kashiwagi

On a recent Sunday, thousands of young people from across Japan rallied in central Tokyo, fighting for an unexpected cause in a city known for political apathy. Mostly in their 20s, the congregation carried banners demanding respect for themselves, the working poor in one of the world's richest nations. let us live a decent life! and let us work like human beings! the banners cried. Ayako Kobayashi, a 23-year-old protester, says, "Poverty is really spreading all around us."

Yes, the Japanese economy is recovering and the number of full-time jobs is growing, but that only adds to the frustrations of the millions of Japanese who graduated from college during the decade long jobs slump that ended in 2003. While Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in office, from 2001 to 2006, Japan lost 4 million full-time jobs and gained 4.3 million part-time and temp jobs. Now an estimated population of 5 million singles increasingly find themselves stuck without the skills or experience to command corporate careers, and some are starting to organize. "It's as if a balloon is stretching thin that is about to explode," says Kazumi Ito, chairman of the Tokyo Young Contingent Workers' Union, one of the groups that organized the Sunday rally. And the public, which for years dismissed the underemployed "lost generation" as lazy kids who would grow up one day, is now starting to worry that they will become a permanent underemployed and unmarried burden on society.

That has forced the new administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to take notice. He recently announced "Second Chance" programs to provide job training and other assistance to struggling workers. The government has also passed a labor law to encourage and in some cases require companies to pay part-time workers more. Although $725 million has been allocated so far, these moves are criticized as too vague or limited to make much difference. And the new rules leave companies wiggle room to resist the cost of paying higher temp wages.

According to the government, there are as many as 1.9 million "freeters," or workers under 35 without a stable job, moving from one odd job to another. The figure has gone down slightly over the past year, but has almost doubled over the past 15 years. Their wages are often nearly equal to the level of welfare for the unemployed, the disabled and underemployed ...