Comparative Studies on NEET， Freeter， and Unemployed Youth in Japan and the UK
Preface
In developed countries， the precarious and insecure position of young people is growing． Beck argues， remarkable is the new similarity in how paid work itself is shaping up in．the so−called first world and so−called
third world；the spread of telnporary and insecure employment，
discontinuity and loose informality into Western society that have hitherto been bastions of full employment iBeck，2000）． Young people are
affected by these conditions most directly（Furlong＆Kelly，2005）．
However， the actual conditions that young people face are not yet fully understood by policy makers and public discourse． ・
As the nature of the transition from school，to work changed over time，
the number of young people not participating in the labour market or
participating only partially increased． Many of these young people could not be adequately categorized by the traditional dichotomous groupings of employed and unemployed， and new categories， such as Freeter／NEET in Japan and NEET in the UK， were introdu6ed to recognise them．
Governments are using these categories as targets for various policies， but these policies do not recognise the cause and nature of the conditions facing young people today， For example， the personal character of young people is often cited as the main cause， but socio−economic factors strongly affect the labour market． In Japan， the government only recently launched a
policy for young people， but it focused mainly on their personal character，
poor work ethic and attitude． We see a similar tendency in the UK and in
other developed countries． They sometimes insist that increased
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unemployment and the precarious condition in which young people live is
due to their low level of emPloyability．
At present， we need to define the main characteristics of young people living in preρarious conditions so that we can determine on what exactly governmental policies should be focused． In the following two articles， we examine the characteristics of those young people grouped in the NEET
and Freeter categories， both in Japan and in the UK． Our analysis reveals the similarities and differellces ip the precarious and insecure conditions faced by young people in two countries．
These two articles are based on the reports presented at the seminar of compllrative studies on NEET／Freeter in Match 2006 in Tokyo． Original ones were pUblished in the Report of Grant−in−Aided for Scientific Research 2005（project number 16530518）．
References
Beck， U．（2000）， The．Brαve〈Xew World（〜f Work， Cambridge：Polity Press．
Furlong， A．，＆Kelly， P．（2005）， The Braziliansation of youth transitions in Australia and the UK？，、4 ustrαliαn Journα1（〜f Sociαl Issues， Vol．40，
No．2， pp．207−22 ． ，
