The number of articles related to Hikikomori in two major Japanese newspapers, Asahi Shinbun and Yomiuri Shinbun, has grown from merely 4 in 1985 to 794 in 2005 ( Ishikawa, 2007).
The prevalence of Freeter, NEET, and Hikikomori has risen in Japan over the past few decades. Following the explanation, this paper aims to elucidate the motivational responses of students and Freeters under different job-hunting prospects evoked by priming. The occurrence of Freeter, NEET, and Hikikomori has been increasing, and one explanation proposed was the economic recession and globalization in Japan, paired with the institutional reluctance to reform at the cost of decreasing young adults' motivation to participate in mainstream society ( Toivonen et al., 2011).
In the extreme case, “Hikikomori” (social withdrawal), a term first used in the academic field in 1986, describes people who avoid social interactions even with their family members, shutting themselves in their room for months or years ( Kitao, 1986). “NEET” was first coined by Bynner and Parsons (2002) to describe those who are “not in education, employment, or training” in the UK. The word “Freeter” in Japanese describes those who engage in part-time jobs only and do not seek a full-time, lifelong employment. On the other hand, those with a marginalized orientation in the periphery are those who reject the mainstream Japanese cultural values but do not possess a different cultural identity, such as Freeter, NEET, and Hikikomori ( Norasakkunkit and Uchida, 2011). Applying the model to the Japanese context, the mainstream society consists of interdependent full-time workers who value group harmony and seniority ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 Kitayama et al., 2016). In Berry and Sam (1997) acculturation model, those who do not wish to maintain their own cultural identity and do not seek to engage with the dominant society have a marginalized orientation, lacking “cultural fit”. In all societies, there are those who fit in the mainstream and those marginalized in the periphery. (2011) that both Freeters and students in Japan have ritualist reactions, continuing to maintain the cultural norms despite the difficulty of attaining the cultural goals. The results confirmed the framework proposed by Toivonen et al. For Freeters, marginalization risk priming led to higher compliance motivation to conform to in-group members. Results showed that marginalization risk priming led to lower tendency to be self-consistent among students, but did not lead to lower tendency to conform to in-group members. Twenty-three control group students and 22 control group Freeters were also recruited online for comparison. Sixty-five Kyoto University students and 74 Freeters were randomly assigned to one of the two priming conditions (marginalization risk or non-marginalization) before completing the NEET-Hikikomori Risk (NHR) scale and measurements of compliance motivation to conform to in-group members or to be self-consistent ( Cialdini et al., 1999). In this study we explore the effect of the macro socio-economic situation (job-hunting prospects being good or bad) on individual's compliance motivation in both students and Freeters. People at higher risk of becoming NEET and Hikikomori have shown a motivation pattern deviant from mainstream Japanese culture, including lower willingness to conform to in-group members, thus showing less cultural fit ( Norasakkunkit and Uchida, 2014).
Freeter (part-time employers), NEET (not in education, employment, or training), and Hikikomori (social withdrawal) represent the socio-economically marginalized population in Japan. This study examines the compliance motivation of students and Freeters when facing a marginalization risk situation evoked by priming.