• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

  • Photowalks
  • Book and Prints
  • Newsletter
  • Portfolio
  • About/Contact
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • RSS

Apr 18 2018 11 Comments

Japan’s cruel labelling of the unemployed?

Like many societies, Japan has an unhealthy obsession with labelling people, but this new, surprisingly literal approach, seems more than a little cruel.

unemployed couple in tokyo

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lee says

    4/18/2018 at 11:08 am

    Haha wait for this to be taken out of context

    Reply
    • archie4oz says

      4/18/2018 at 11:30 am

      Ah! I saw this sweater on Terrace House!

      Reply
      • Lee says

        4/18/2018 at 12:49 pm

        @Lee I did wonder about that when I wrote it, but pretty obvious — I hope!

        @archi4oz Oh, interesting. If it’s been on that programme, then there must be quite a few out and about then. This was the first time for me to see it, and it was especially striking with both of them wearing it.

        Reply
  2. Harry says

    4/18/2018 at 2:41 pm

    Kinda funny anyway but their expressions really make it! 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/18/2018 at 8:03 pm

      Cheers. Yes, got lucky with that. Had just enough time to get this one shot, and thankfully they weren’t smiling.

      Reply
  3. cdilla says

    4/18/2018 at 4:45 pm

    Nicely timed photograph. If they’d been smiling the impact would have been lost.
    I wonder if, with such a greying population and low birth rate there is an employment problem at all in Japan.
    On the labelling front, here is what I am wearing around town at present (https://store.2600.com/products/phreak-sweatshirt-gray-w-zipper). I have had the epithet shouted at me a couple of times so far. But on both occasions it was my wife 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/18/2018 at 8:19 pm

      Thanks. Yeah, mentioned that above. Got lucky with that as only had time to take this one shot. Thankfully the moment we passed each other they were looking especially glum.

      Not at the moment. Or at least not as I’m aware of. In the future, however, the country is going to. I can’t see how it can avoid them. Leaving Tokyo it’s striking how much of the farming is done by older residents. Not just older either, but old. Then there’s the people needed to look after all the elderly, and the extra numbers to pay taxes to maintain them, and everything else…

      Haha, that’s asking for someone to shout at you!

      Reply
  4. john says

    4/19/2018 at 2:53 am

    “This futago co-de disguise isn’t going to work, and neither are we.”

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/19/2018 at 11:42 am

      Haha, that seems to be the case!

      Reply
  5. MrSatyre says

    4/19/2018 at 3:50 am

    What does the lack of a job matter so long as they have each other? I mean, besides no money for food, a place to live, bathing only on alternate Thursdays, living under a bridge… But ahhh, young, unemployed love!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      4/19/2018 at 11:43 am

      Love (and fashion) conquers all!

      Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Tokyo Times