Why This Topic Landed in Japan
Youth employment is a subject Japanese readers measure against their own system almost reflexively, so a British figure that large arrived pre-loaded with comparisons.
The report, commissioned by the government and carried in Japan by AFP-Jiji, found that young people aged 15 to 24 in neither education, employment nor training passed one million in the first quarter — the first time since 2013 — and warned that with no action the figure could reach 1.25 million within five years, or one in six young people. Alan Milburn, the former Labour minister leading the review, said Britain was on the brink of a lost generation and that too many young people reach adulthood only to find the doors to opportunity closed.
Alongside it ran the aftermath of the crossings into Ceuta, Spain's enclave on the North African coast. Spanish authorities said more than 50,000 people had converged on Ceuta by land and sea since 30 July, that more than 48,000 returned to Morocco within 48 hours, and that at least 72 people died, some drowning or crushed while trying to get over the breakwater and the border fence. One man who had been moving from place to place since war broke out in his native Sudan said he would rather die there than go back. How many people remain in Ceuta is unclear.
Japanese readers did not treat these as two stories. They read them as one arc about labour shortages, immigration and what comes afterwards.
Key Reaction Themes
- Interrogating the statistic before the story — A strand of readers went straight to how Britain counts NEETs, pointing out that jobseekers are included there but not under Japan's definition.
- Japan's hiring customs, reappraised — Bulk hiring of new graduates, usually a target of complaint, was defended as protection against the experience trap.
- Immigration blamed for the whole picture — Youth unemployment and migration policy were fused into a single verdict on European failure.
- Read as a warning for Japan — The recurring closing move was to bring it home: this is where Japan is heading.
What Japanese Netizens Are Saying
Britain's NEET count passes one million
Scepticism about how the number is built ran alongside a second look at Japan's own hiring customs.
Sources: JIJI.COM
Comments:
- "Maybe I'll go to Britain too."
- "All those lefties who were saying immigration is right because it makes up the working population, like in Britain..."
- "Japan isn't losing on that front either."
- "The problem in the first place is that it has become a 'social system where you can live without working.'"
- "15 to 24 is a really narrow band, and there are a million of them? It's over, surely."
- "Can't be helped. It's a society where new-graduate hiring doesn't exist."
- "Students complain about Japan's bulk hiring of new graduates, but for students it's a divine system. With job-based employment you can't get hired without experience, so you need experience, but the problem of not being able to accumulate that experience follows you around constantly."
- "And Britain only has a population of 70 million, right? Well then, the Japanese really are diligent after all."
- "The former reserve-currency country and hegemon, reduced to this. The British Empire is a shadow of its old self."
- "No, in Britain's case people who are job-hunting are also counted as NEET. In Japan NEET is defined as someone with no intention of working, so it's manipulation of impressions."
- "Britain has a lot of immigrants. It's Japan's tomorrow."
The aftermath of the crossings into Ceuta
The returns figure and the question of who is still there set the terms of the argument.
🇪🇸【隠蔽される国境破綻】 スペイン政府「ほぼ収束した」は大嘘——セウタ市内に5000人以上が残留、一部は密輸ボートでスペイン本土へ拡大中 スペイン・サンチェス政権が発表した「事態はほぼ正常化し、大半を送還した」という大本営発表と、現地からのリアル映像との間には、大きな食い違いが発覚。 Show more
🇪🇸【セウタでバンが襲われる】 食料を載せた車両が、海岸にいた移民に襲撃され軍が出動😱 セウタのベニーテス海岸で、数日間の食料不足に耐えかねた移民グループがNGOの支援バンに押し寄せ、略奪し奪い合う事態が発生。 砂塵が舞うなかスペイン軍兵士が駆けつけ一部は制止。 Show more
The Spanish government claims the migrant crisis was resolved “quickly” and that everyone has returned. That is simply not true. Thousands remain, the pressure persists, and the reality on the ground contradicts the narrative. Propaganda does not fix a crisis. @gaceta_es Show more
🚨BREAKING: The Mayor of Ceuta has said Pedro Sánchez is LYING about the number of migrants who have left "There is still 10 to 15 thousand illegal migrants still in the city. They have set up encampments and shelters." 🇪🇸
This is today in Ceuta. Hordes of invaders are marching through the streets while chanting "There is no god but Allah", and "Allahu Akbar". Don't believe the communist regime or legacy media. The situation is horrible.
Sources: Yahoo! news
Comments:
- "Attacking an NGO's aid van — ah, that's African migrants for you."
- "That's the left-wing Spanish government for you, no wavering."
- "The refugee-bomb tactic is a nice one. China has finally noticed it too."
- "Immigration is a hundred harms and not a single benefit."
- "They've been running it on America for over ten years now, surely."
- "This is the beginning of the war of invasion against Spain."
- "It never stops baffling me that there are still not a few people pushing for acceptance. It's not as though every one of them has been bought off."
- "Why does every country avert its eyes from immigration? Look properly, they're just invaders. Rather than setting up shelters and camps, deporting every last one is better however you think about it."
