Cover Story: Signs of change

BY HIROSHI MATSUBARA, STAFF WRITER

This is the fifth in a series on the July 29 Upper House election

Social Democratic Party candidate Akiko Yamamoto greets supporters in Niigata Prefecture on July 15. (HIROSHI MATSUBARA)

The so-called Lost Generation has come of age.

In fact, several candidates in Sunday's election come from this very group that many older Japanese had written off as never being able to make a go of things.

What makes the candidacy of Ryuhei Kawada, 31, so special is the fact that until now, few members of this vast segment of seemingly aimless young people had sought political office.

This is the first election since the term "Lost Generation" was coined over a decade ago in which members of this demographic sector can make their voices heard.

Not surprisingly, Kawada's campaign has attracted like-minded sympathizers.

Kaori Yagi and Ayumi Sakuda are two such people. Throughout the decade from the mid-1990s when disillusionment set in among the younger generation, Yagi and Sakuda--then in their 20s--traveled, drifted from job to job and tried to give meaning to their lives.

The Lost Generation refers to some 20 million Japanese currently aged between 25 and 35 who found it difficult to land stable employment following the burst of the asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s.

What sets such people apart is that they reached adulthood just as social myths about lifetime employment and guaranteed prosperity were exploding.

As a result, people in that generation were often viewed as selfish, absorbed in self-reflection and unwilling to make the sort of sacrifices that their parents had made.

Yagi and Sakuda, both 31, have come to realize that holding down full-time employment is important.

Without a steady income and related benefits, the future would always look bleak.

Thus, Kawada's election campaign shone like a beacon to them.

"Through working at a major electronics company as a dispatched worker, I became aware that part-timers have a huge disadvantage in terms of income and benefits," Yagi said. "Kawada stands for those who cannot stand up for themselves and that includes many unfortunate members in our generation," she added.

Sakuda, citing Kawada's past achievements, said she hopes his campaign will spur interest in civic activism, her current field of interest.

Kawada gained national prominence when he went public with the fact that he became infected with HIV while being treated for hemophilia with tainted blood products when he was a child.

Through tainted blood products, some 2,000 hemophiliacs in Japan became infected with HIV. In 1993, Kawada spearheaded a campaign against the government and the drug companies involved.

At the age of 19, Kawada decided to go public with his disease.

In 1996, the plaintiffs won an apology from the government and the companies responsible, resulting in a financial settlement.

In a recent interview, Kawada, who is running for a seat in the Tokyo electoral district, said political apathy among young people is directly linked to their exclusive focus on self.

This, he explained, causes many young people to take every setback very personally, which in turn discourages them from doing anything in the way of collective action.

"Working irregularly or even becoming a NEET (not in employment, education and training) is an act of individual rebellion by young people who despair of ever affecting decision-making processes," Kawada said.

"Through first-hand experience, I know that collective action can make a difference. So I hope that more young people will come to this realization by voting on Sunday."

Among the 22 candidates who are aged 35 or younger, Akiko Yamamoto most typically symbolizes the Lost Generation mentality.

Yamamoto, a 31-year-old former Niigata city assembly member who is running in the Niigata constituency from Social Democratic Party, spent most of her 20s trying to find a niche for herself in society.

After she graduated from university in 1998, Yamamoto decided she wanted no part in "mass consumer society." Instead, she rented a 20-hectare farm in Niigata Prefecture and set about making a living through organic farming.

She barely managed and had to supplement her income by working part-time as a waitress at a nearby onsen. After two years, she gave up the farm and her job to volunteer her time and energy to local nonprofit activities.

She started by joining protests against the planned construction of a nuclear plant in the village of Maki. In 2003, she joined the village assembly. During this period, Yamamoto occasionally found odd jobs which paid little more than 200,000 yen a year.

While campaigning in a shopping district in downtown Niigata on July 15, Yamamoto emphasized that she understands what it's like to be young and poor.

"From my experience of working as a waitress, I truly understand the feelings of part-time workers," Yamamoto told passers-by.

As part of her campaign platform she pledges to correct the income and benefit disparity between full-time and part-time workers.

"I'm someone who used to earn just 200,000 yen annually--and now I'm running in a national election. I hope I will be seen as a symbol of change in the country's politics," Yamamoto said afterward. "Through my campaign, I hope to motivate more people in my generation to take part in politics."

The youngest candidate in the Upper House election is 30-year-old Saori Yoshikawa of Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan). In her campaign, the former sales employee of NTT West Corp. was at pains to stress her experience as an "ordinary corporate worker."

In her speeches, she tells audiences that being "ordinary" should be construed as being lucky enough to have landed a job. In her case, she joined NTT in 1999, when the ration of jobs to job-seekers was at a record low of 48:100.

After she decided to run in the election, she called up former classmates to solicit their votes.

She quickly realized it was inappropriate to ask them what they did for a living as many were in dead-end jobs or earning a marginal living as part-timers.

"Many of them could not find jobs they wanted and were forced to spend the next decade as social drifters," Yoshikawa said. "If I make my way to the Diet, I want to represent these victims of generational disparity.

"Even now I wonder if they will ever feel like casting their votes because they may feel so disconnected from mainstream society and in despair that they can ever effect social change."(IHT/Asahi: July 23,2007)