Youth and Social Movements In Japan Characteristics Of The Rebellious Youth and Its Mobilization In Japan

Though not as spectacular or massive as in other countries, recent mobilization of the youth in Japan is however a major phenomenon that triggers the attention of the media and the general public. Especially, the mobilization of young non-regular workers since 2000 had a major role in strengthening the national anti-poverty movement. It supported, for instance, the reform of the assistance income law and the reform of the temporary workers law.

However this contribution has been scarily analyzed or has been simply by-passed by some researchers. As a matter of fact, we still know very little about the social mobilization of the Japanese youth.

By analyzing results of our research focusing on members of the « Union of the Youth of Tokyo », a leading organization of the anti-poverty network, I would like to present new findings concerning two dimensions of this mobilization:

1) What are the characteristics of the young people who mobilize (in terms of age, gender, income and socioprofessional class)

2) What are the characteristics of their mobilization (primo-mobilization or not; short term or long term mobilization).

Our findings are based on quantitative and qualitative data: the archive of the SU (630 entries) and in-death, longitudinal interviews of 50 members that started in 2008, during and after their mobilization in the « Union of the Youth ».