Mary C. Brinton, "Lost in Transition: Youth, Work, and Instability in Postindustrial Japan," (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Lost in Transition tells the story of the “lost generation” that came of age in Japan’s deep economic recession in the 1990s. The book argues that Japan is in the midst of profound changes that have had an especially strong impact on the young generation. The country’s renowned “permanent employment system” has unraveled for young workers, only to be replaced by temporary and insecure forms of employment. The much-admired system of moving young people smoothly from school to work has frayed. The book argues that these changes in the very fabric of Japanese postwar institutions have loosened young people’s attachment to school as the launching pad into the world of work and loosened their attachment to the workplace as a source of identity and security. The implications for the future of Japanese society – and the fault lines within it – loom large. Lost generation Japan Japanese economic recession 1990s Japan youth employment crisis Permanent employment system Japan Temporary work Japan School-to-work transition Japan Postwar Japanese institutions Japanese workforce changes Youth identity in Japan Japanese social transformation Impact of recession on Japanese youth Japan insecure employment Economic changes in Japan 1990s Japanese workplace culture Youth disconnection in Japan Temporary employment Japan trends Japanese social fault lines Workplace identity crisis Japan Young workers Japan recession Japan's changing job market East Asian Studies Podcast Japanese History Podcast Modern Japan Studies