日本年輕人不同的命運 Japan's lost generation struggles to catch up
You get exactly one chance at success in the Japanese labour market, and as the world economy started to turn downwards in 2007, an 18-year-old Mr Takeda missed his.
在日本勞動力市場，你只有一次成功的機會——不多也不少。當2007年世界經濟開始下行時，18歲的竹田（Takeda）錯過了自己的機會。
His technical high school poured effort into matching its pupils with employers, but as a shy teenager in that year’s weak market, he was left without a job — and no way back. Mr Takeda, who does not want his full name published, describes what followed as six years of “black”.
他所上的技術高中努力幫助自己的學生找工作，但他是個害羞的年輕人，在那年不景氣的市場環境下沒有找到工作——也沒法重新來過。竹田不希望文章中出現他的全名。他把接下來的六年描述成“黑色”的六年。
“If you don’t get recruited first time around it’s extremely difficult,” says Mr Takeda, who couldn’t even get a part-time position. “I didn’t have any work experience. Once you have a blank period on your CV it’s extremely hard to get a job.”
“如果你畢業時沒找到工作，再想找到工作就非常困難了，”竹田說。他甚至得不到一份兼職工作。“我當時沒有任何工作經驗。一旦你的履歷上有一段空白期，要找到一份工作就變得極端困難。”
Mr Takeda fell victim to the poisonous combination of a deflationary economy and Japan’s lifetime employment system. Lucky school and university leavers get a secure job for the rest of their career. Those who miss out enter a precarious limbo of temporary contracts and part-time work.
經濟通縮和日本的終身就業制度是一種有害的結合，竹田就成爲了這種結合的犧牲品。幸運的高中和大學畢業生會找到一份可以從事一輩子的工作。那些畢業時沒找到工作的人，就進入了一種危險的沒着沒落狀態，只能籤臨時工作合同、從事兼職工作。
With this kind of work increasingly on the rise in developed countries, Japan is an advanced case study in what happens when a large group of workers is marginalised in this way.
考慮到發達國家的這種工作越來越多，日本爲考察當大量勞動者以這種方式被邊緣化時會發生什麼提供了一個高級案例。
Those who missed out on lifetime jobs in the aftermath of Japan’s 1990 stock market crash are now in their forties.
那些在日本1990年股市崩盤之後錯過了終身制飯碗的人，如今已經40多歲了。
“There are many men who couldn’t find work when they were young, gave up, and they’re now in middle age,” says Yuji Genda, a professor at the University of Tokyo.
“有許多這樣的人，他們在年輕時沒找到工作，就放棄了，現在已步入中年，”東京大學(University of Tokyo)教授玄田有史(Yuji Genda)說。
There are now around 340,000 Japanese men of prime working age, between 35 and 44 who are out of the labour force — double the level of 20 years ago. “It’s become a big social problem,” he says.
日本目前約有34萬處於職業盛年（35歲至44歲）的人不屬於勞動力人口，這個數字爲20年前的兩倍。“這已經成了一個嚴重的社會問題，”他說。
Mr Genda’s research highlights the extremity of what happens to Japanese students who graduate in a bad job market. In the US, if the unemployment rate is one percentage point higher at the time of graduation, a high school graduate earns 3 per cent less on average.
玄田有史的研究凸顯了在勞動力市場糟糕時期畢業的日本學生所面臨的極端遭遇。在美國，如果高中畢業生在畢業時失業率高了1個百分點，那麼他們的平均收入會低3%。
That disadvantage fades out after a few years. But in Japan, graduating in similar conditions means a 7 per cent wage hit on average, and more than a decade later students in that cohort will still be earning 5 to 7 per cent less. The brunt of that wage loss is borne by those who did not secure a regular job.
在美國，這一劣勢在幾年之後就消失了。但在日本，同樣的情況意味着，那些高中畢業生的平均收入會低7%，十年多以後，他們的收入仍將低5%至7%。承受工資損失衝擊的是那些沒找到正規工作的人。
The polarisation of Japan’s labour market not only causes hardship for those on the wrong side of the lifetime system — it is also a significant economic problem.
日本勞動力市場的兩極分化，不但令終身就業制度之外的人艱難度日，而且也構成一個突出的經濟問題。
The productivity of temporary staff is lower, the IMF argues, because they are less motivated and companies do not train them.
國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)提出，臨時工的生產效率更低，因爲他們的積極性更低，公司也不培訓他們。
The fund has urged Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, to prioritise overhauling the jobs market as part of the “third arrow” of Abenomics, his package of structural reforms designed to tackle deflation and boost growth.
IMF敦促日本首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)把徹底改革勞動力市場提高到優先位置，作爲安倍經濟學“第三支箭”的組成部分。“第三支箭”是指安倍提出的旨在擺脫通縮和提振增長的一系列結構性改革措施。
The Diet, or parliament, is considering modest reforms, such as letting companies pay professional staff by results instead of hours worked, but nothing that would break down what has become a two-tier market, economists said.
經濟學家表示，日本國會(Diet)正在考慮實施溫和改革，比如讓公司根據業績而不是工作時長給專業人員支付薪水，但經濟學家表示，這麼做將無法打破當前勞動力市場已經形成的分化。
