Gov't plans to recruit urban youths to work in rural areas

Friday 19th December, 10:17 AM JST

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smithinjapan at 12:49 PM JST - 19th December

This is just another example of how the government likes to pat itself on the back with the 'miraculous solutions' they come up with to combat huge social problems. As usual, within a few months, we'll here the federal government fob off HOW this will be implemented to the individual prefectures to decide, and they in turn will do nothing while waiting for instructions from the government.

Again, just words.

What's more, how the heck are they going to get the 'urban youth' to voluntarily go out there for 'one to three' years?? Once those kids find out they have poor cell reception they'll be out the door on the idea, let alone asking them to do manual labour for peanuts.
mareo2 at 01:01 PM JST - 19th December

@hokkaidoguy

I came from a contry with a farm economy and I dont live in the big cities. The countryside have a lot of work in the sowing season and the harvest season. Thats why lots of ilegals cross the border in to USA and Argentine in that seasons. But the rest of the time there is not much to do there exept for a small number of people. Lot of people from Hokkaido came looking for work in the factories every year in winter.
franz75 at 01:07 PM JST - 19th December

"poor cell reception". That's coming for the Health Ministry later saying that using a cell phone cause internal ear cancer. You'll have everybody fleding in rural areas and become ardent anti-cellphone users.
tzvete at 04:53 PM JST - 19th December

There are some new ideas about the education system also. http://mayomo.com/#/id=32852/ Do you think there would some positive effect?
martyman at 05:06 PM JST - 19th December

This program would be even better if the government would use the criminals given suspended sentences to work off their crime in a community service program. 500 billion yen in grants could go to other programs that need additional funding. Like roadway repair : )
borscht at 05:31 PM JST - 19th December

patrolling water sources and crafting rural revival plans

They plan to have unemployed 'youths' doing this? Making rural revival plans? Couldn't the government afford or locate urban and rural renewal professionals to do this? And they want the youths to be cops (patrolling), too?

I await the details.
gaijintraveller at 06:47 PM JST - 19th December

To me this sounds like just another way to send more money to constituencies in the countryside controlled by the LDP. Young people leave the countryside to go to the city because there are few good jobs in the countryside.

May I assume that "forestry" means cutting down old natural forest and replacing it with the detested sugi to which so many are allergic?

It would be more to the point to encourage employers to move to the countryside.
smithinjapan at 10:17 PM JST - 19th December

I like martyman's suggestion. I say the suspended sentences should be suspended only on the condition that at least half of the verdict suspended (as in, 3 years suspend for 5 would be 1.5 years) needs to be spent working in some capacity in said rural areas. The criminals are allowed to keep money they make from their labour.
30061015 at 11:49 PM JST - 19th December

"several hundred young people will be recruited from urban areas"

Its a "good idea", but most will just return to the city once the economy picks up again. Rural areas & J-young people... there has to be a greater reason for them to to stay in agriculture, like say, starvation. You need couples & young families to take on this challenge of "regional vitalization". Give them land & give them major tax breaks & pay them to have kids. Really, its the only way, cause most rural areas are not friendly to outsiders. You gotta give them a reason to move there.
taikan at 01:00 AM JST - 20th December

This program sounds like the Civilian Conservation Corps established in the US by President Roosevelt to provide employment during the depression. Thus, it appears that Hatoyama is either predicting a coming depression or trying to take steps to avoid one
JohnBecker at 02:26 AM JST - 20th December

I was thinking it sounds more like the VISTA programs in the U.S. in the '60s and '70s. VISTA was kind of a domestic Peace Corps, sending young people out into poor rural areas to teach and participate in public works projects (something like the CCC and WPA).
ca1ic0cat at 02:30 AM JST - 20th December

Yeah, sounds like a way to get work done that isn't necessary or nobody wants to do and pay people who would otherwise be broke. Not a bad idea in the long run.

After all, didn't the OCED say that Japan has to do sumthin with all the unemployed youth?
frankthedm at 04:25 AM JST - 20th December

originally posted by smithinjapan What's more, how the heck are they going to get the 'urban youth' to voluntarily go out there for 'one to three' years?? Once those kids find out they have poor cell reception they'll be out the door on the idea, let alone asking them to do manual labour for peanuts

I assumed when they said 'urban youths' they meant the ones already in trouble with the law, the poor or those who could not even get through vocational school.
bcbrownboy at 06:11 AM JST - 20th December

But, how Do You Keep Them Down at the Farm After They've Seen Gay Paris?
MeanRingo at 06:44 AM JST - 20th December

Japanese public servant with loudspeaker: "Attention all NEETs, please form a single line beginning at the large blue Kubota back how. You have been assigned a number, if this number ends with a zero, one or two, please join the line behind the fishing trawler."

Seriously, I think they need to make this something cool. Call them kibbutz or something so that they have that cool sound to them. Make sure each work camp has a game centre, an izzakaya and a night club so that the youth don't feel they're missing anything and then let them get to work. I'd do it. Well, maybe I'd do it.

Otherwise, I see no other option than to relocate those urban areas into more rural spots. Osaka, for example can just as easily be moved to someplace in rural Mie-ken as Japanese youth can be moved out of their cityscapes. Ganbatte Japan.