LOST

I am the one of the people who are called “the Lost Generation” in Japan. From 1992 to 2003, Japan was in the middle of the worst depression after World War II. The bubbling economy broke up, so the economy of Japan, which seemed to be the strongest in the world, lost its power. Companies downsized their human resource, and stopped or cut new employment. These ten years are called “the Lost Ten Years” in Japan. In addition, the generation who graduated from schools and started to work during that depression, are called “the Lost Generation”. Both my husband and I belong to it. The lost ten years has left considerable effects on our life.

The initial effect I came up with was my job hunting. Despite graduating from a famous university with a Bachelor of Law, I faced difficulty finding an adequate job. When I was looking for a job; it was 2002, the rate of new employment was the worst in the history. The rate, calculated with dividing the number of students who got a job by the number of students who wanted to get a job, was 55.1%. Therefore, I had to apply to over twenty companies and take a lot of placement tests and interviews. One company interviewed me eight times and finally told me that “Although your qualifications are impressive, they do not match our current needs.” Though it was terrible experience for me, it was not an unusual case among that period. The students that graduated from junior colleges had more difficulty than those that graduated from universities and girls had more difficulty than boys. It took four months before I acquired a job as a secretary in an accounting firm.

On the other hand, this hard circumstance brought a good change to my husband’s career. Although he had started working at a hopeful company, he reconsidered his career. Since he thought that he might need to enhance his worth in order to survive hard surroundings, he decided to try U.S. CPA. He studied hard while he kept working, and achieved a CPA in 2001. As a consequence, he started his career as an accountant in one of the big four accounting firms.

The biggest effect is changing our thought about the relationship between a company and an employee. For long time, it had been ordinary in Japan that the company promised to the employees of their lifetime employment. In return for that implied promise, the employees showed loyalty to the company. That was one of the reasons why Japanese companies grow up for such a short time after World War II. Changing jobs many times was regarded as the proof of an impatient person. However, if companies are not able to keep the promise any more, why hasn’t employee adapted their thought to? Our generation doesn’t hesitate to change our job to create own career. Both my husband and I also agree with that idea. We regard the company not as the eternal place we should serve, but as one step for developing our career.

As you can see, the lost ten years gave us significant effects. After that, Japan recovered little and little, the economy has become strong again. As a result, the rate of new employment is improved. I hear that students can get a lot of offers from different companies these days. Probably our generation suffered a loss at some point, but I never want to complain. If it had not been in the depression, I suppose I wouldn’t have chosen the job in that accounting firm. My husband might not have tried to get a CPA. Then, we might have not met. Although it is easy to blame the life on the times, I think it is far useful to accept surroundings, adapt it, and do my best. I may be a one of lost generation, but I believe I have not lost anything.