Approaching the apartment, I imagined all the scenes that have been described in novels, comic books and TV dramas, in which the room of a Neet is always depicted as dark and dirty, with piles of black garbage bags on the floor spreading unbearable stink. Old comic books and porn magazines are scattered all over the floor. There are voices of rustlings coming from the kitchen and bathroom, with mould and calluses sticking on the oil stained walls, hundreds of maggots are twisting and squiring in the rotten kitchen waste from which a decade yellow liquid is flowing across the cracks of ceramic tiles, which indicates a hundred and thousand glossy cockroaches are prowling and copulating behind wardrobes’ doors and rusty leaking pipes, some are busing sipping white juice from the other’s split open belly. A swollen shadow is hiding its face in the bath of the glowing computer screen; his obese figure covers up the only source of light in this living inferno. From his grizzly hair and skin a disgusting smile of sublimated sweat and sperm fills the room; beside him the bottles filled with dark yellow urine incite a feeling of vomit. Voices of typing and clicking along with low and deep giggles and mumbles from a dry and inflexible vocal cord become uncomfortable noises dubbing this grotesque picture. At least this is what I have printed in my mind by the vivid illustration of Neet in the media.

The word Neet is origin in England, which refers to people not involved in Education, Employment or work Training. They are often incompetent and lack working skills which leads them to constant unemployment. But recent research had found that the average age of Neet had dropped to that of young college graduates, who in face of the global economic crisis and a shrinking working market are unwilling to bend their high self esteem from their academic background to do laboring and low-paid jobs, which made them “voluntarily unemployed.” Some of them don’t want to work due to over-dependant on family support or are unable to adapt to social life. The word later spread to Japan and became widely used. Especially after the economic bubble in 80’s, this led to not only a job market that continues to shrink but also an overall economic depression. More and more people are doing part time jobs rather than a steady occupation in big companies as salary men. The high pressure and overworking conditions in Japan’s big companies are also reducing the working will of the young graduates who find themselves not able to gain a salary reciprocal to their professions to work. Neet is different from Freeters who prefer easy part time jobs; Neets don’t work and have no intention to work at all. Their dependence on their parents often leads to domestic discord and might force them to practice illegal acts under financial pressure. There are four main types of Neet, one is who has no practical working skill and hence is always unemployed, the second consider their high education deserves a job with high salary and `good treatment so that he or she would not work till they find a suitable job. The third type of Neet has autistic problems when interacting with other people so that they can’t even leave their rooms. The last type those indulged by their parents and have professional skills, but they have special ideologies about life and prefer freedom over work. Most people are not familiar with Neet and often consider them irresponsible and unproductive to the society and their own family, thinking that they might become financial burdens or a criminal group, and they need to be forced to work by law enforcement. In fact, I have some acquaintances in these conditions with different causes, but most of them are not willing to accept my interviews due to personal reasons. Than through a friend in church I was informed that a Japanese guy called Osaka Keisuke has been Neet for two years and is traveling and learning Chinese in Taipei.

It was a two stories apartment; the front door on the first floor was electronically locked, so I had to wait for him to open for me from inside. Waiting for about three to five minutes, voices of crackling from, the unlocking door made me kind of nervous so that I felt I was still not ready to greet this person. Then he appeared from behind the door, stretching out his hands to shake mines and asked me to come inside. His rented room is in the second floor, I followed him walking up the stairs and started to wonder how I would ask him about these questions, and how could I make it not that offensive.

Ôsaka Keisuke, now living in Taipei to learn Chinese, became a Neet after he failed the college entrance exam in Japan. His life has changed from that moment on. The life after that was a circulation of the same routines. In the morning he sleeps until 12 o’clock and eats the breakfast his parents has prepared for him, after that he opens the computer and looks through all the blogs for news of TV programs and learned new information about animation and its industry. After three to four hours of these practices, he will read all kind of social-economic books and help cleaning up the house. The same routine had maintained for 2 years.

Ôsaka and I were standing in front of the door of his room seeing him taking out the key from his pocket and opening the door casually, I kind of felt that I was the only one worrying about his situation. Then he opened the door and told me that if I find his room unclean, it’s because he hadn’t cleaned it up for a week. We entered his room and the first scene came into my eyes was relatively shocking. Certainly the room wasn’t in order and neat, but there was no food container or garbage that would rot on the floor. The washing tank was filled with used dishes, but they were washed clean so there was no smell of rotten food. It seemed like tough he spent most of his time in this space; he had paid attention on the basic sanitation. The things scattered on floor and bed are mostly books and written papers, the laptop beside his bed was still new and seemed seldom used. He cleaned up a place for me to sit and prepared coffees for both of us.

He was dressed casually with white polo shirt and dark blue jeans; there was nothing weird about his appearance. If I wasn’t informed of his story he would be a normal Japanese college student with a little nerdy hobby and shy in expressing in my first impression. He told me in fluent Japanese that, ”It all started from the summer when I had only three months left to prepare for the college entrance test, at that time I had no interest in study and my grades in math and English were extremely awful that I couldn’t even memorize the 24 English alphabets and solve faction problems.” He smiled in a self-ridiculing way, which made me wonder if he really cares about his grades and career, since it also concern with his academic achievement. Than he started to tell me the so called “dark history” in the two years after his fail in exam. “I didn’t like study since I was a child, I can still remember the first time my parents hired me Canadian teacher to be my English tutor. And that was the reason why I become resistant to learn English. After I entered the elementary school all I did was sleep in classes and hang out with friends at the game center or bowling alley. I had no intention to enter a high school, so I spent most of my time reading books have no relevance to school teaching.” When he was talking about his resistance toward his parents’ effort to make him a better students, which is also common in Taiwan, I heard no feeling of regret in his tone, and that was a little surprising to me. Because in other news reports of Neets in japan, I saw these often fat and bald middle age man full of anguish in their faces, like they are responsible for their miserable life and they have to feel sorry about the burdens they bring to their family every single days. Some even claim they want to suicide whenever they remember how useless they were. To get rid of this bad feeling, I asked him what else he felt like doing when he was in school. “What are the books you were reading at that time?” I was curious about how he had been through the period he found boring being confined in school study. There were gleaming sparkles in his eyes and he began to count the books he had read like counting precious collections. ” All kinds of books, especially comics and books about philosophy, theology, eco-sociology and history these sorts of themes, I was pretty fascinated about the meaning of life and being at that time.” He said while scratching his back of the neck to conceal a sense of shyness. I was stunned by his rich of philosophy knowledge when we were talking about the ultimate meaning of human beings. He said, “The sense of progressing is actually an imagination of an individual subject that he or she has the ability to control their body and life. But this hallucination kept them from knowing that life is only a circulation of different meanings and knowledge which are controlled by the material possession in a hierarchy system. Which emphasizes personal free will in a certain historical context will bring about their social status in the capital system. This is actually a hallucination created by the general group, who only wants to keep their powers and benefits and let the left out groups from this sifting system rotten in the bottom, begging for mercy and struggle in self-pity and hate!” I was stunned by this explanation of the reason why one becomes a Neet. He was actually scolding at those people who knock on Neet’s doors and hand out a pamphlet which explains Neet is just a personal mental illness which can be cured by accepting a mind inspiring course or work training program. Which will allow them to” come back to the society.” It was like he is standing above the social structure, observing it, examining it through all kinds of theories and assumptions. His failing in academic system just allows him to see things in a different perspective on a position excluded from the “real world.”

I asked him that had he ever wanted to enter a philosophy school. To my surprise, though his grades were so bad that he couldn’t even enter the worst private college in Japan, he was able to study in seminary school thanks to his friends in church. He could have succeeded in study by using his philosophy knowledge if he wanted to. “But I flunked out immediately from it and started my Neet life in the latter two years, I guess I wasn’t sure about my future and didn’t turn in any papers teachers asked me to do.” He admitted that he was really passive toward academic achievement; even it was what he’s good at. He had no intention to pay effort to what his friend and family supported him to do. What kind of reason made him so resisting to the society he lives in? Which asks for being responsible above all.  “So later I lived a repetition of contingent routines in those days at home. I woke up in the noon and started to surf on internet. Read books and went for a walk nearby before I returned and had dinner with my parents, there was nothing special and exciting. I spent most of the time alone reading my books, only when my friends in collegegot out for weekends or holidays could we hang out for a while.” He seems a little lonely when he talked about his friends, who had all entered colleges or started to work that they seldom have time to care about him.” I had no intention to do all those tiring part-time jobs, in fact I didn’t want to work at all since my parents have enough money to keep me at home. But it was so unconstructive that my parents asked me to do house chores to compensate my daily spend. Speaking frankly, if there is no necessary to earn money for a living; I don’t want to work until 35.” I asked him the reason why he doesn’t want to work before he is 35 and he said” the reason is simple, though I want to do researches, my awful math and English doesn’t allow me to enter any college, and since I have no useful skills to find a job, it is better for me to depend on my parents and figure out what do I want to do in the future.” He talked about his dream to become a farmer with a lot of people who are lost in the society; they can work in the field together, sharing stories and worries with each other. Everyone can do whatever they want after their daily works. Painters can draw their ideal beauty not for penny but for self-content. Poets write poetries, philosophers talks about theories, not for money and reputation, only for the mere happiness of sharing and doing what one desires.

Then I asked him how he felt in the two years of being a Neet at home, how was the feeling of being left behind by other classmates and friends?  Was it uncomfortable whenever you were aware of that your parents are working hardly to sustain your living? What did you do whenever you think about how useless you were and how irresponsible when you fail your school grades intentionally?  And I felt a little guilty that I’m using these questions to humiliate him just because he might be able to live the life he wants while I can’t.

His face turned long and he started to say in a serious tone,” Do you know a theory that says although entering the school at the same age, the children born in the first month of the year have its nervous system being incited so that their intelligent performance can out wins those born in the last month of the year? I think this is the reason why some people can do well in school and some people cannot. In fact the academic system is made to sift out the less intelligent children from the first place. Some say it is personal well that compensate a person’s lack of intelligence and makes him or her successful, but I don’t believe that the world can be reorganized by humans’ reasoning from the first place. See how communist country thinks it can control everything by reasoning and created that disgusting social system which have no pity on personal real situation, that’s totally unnatural! I found I couldn’t do well in school from the first place and didn’t bother to have good grades at school, which is why I am here now, unemployed and “uneducated”. I know it’s hard for my parents to accept a “left over” child like me, and I actually feel guilty from time to time. All my friends whether getting high points or not in the exam are now all in colleges, I am one of the only few persons not able to enter even the worst college in Japan. It was like I am abandoned by the whole world. Days passed by through the same activities.

Sleeping, playing games, eating, watching TV, surfing internet, reading, all my life is circulation of the same things in this 4 tatamis big bedroom. It was like my time stopped in those days and everything I thought interesting and recreational became boring and meaningless. I had gradually lost interest in everything and wasted most of the time through oversleeping. I was kind of at the fringe of breaking down and the world started to appear hostile and menacing to me, I was aware of that once my parents died the debt of our house will fall on me and I would soon be kicked out of my house since I have no savings or work. I felt desperate and helpless to the extent that sometimes I want to suicide.” Speaking in a peaceful tone, he looked behind me as if the person he used to be was standing there, but there was no tears of shames that I expected to appear behind his foggy glasses. He looked at me again and made a cough to resolve my awkward feeling after a short pause of silence. He cleared up his throat to take us back to reality. ” One day one of my acquaintances recommended me to go abroad to Taiwan, I thought my life couldn’t be worst and I had nothing to lose, so the next day I packed a few books and clothes with a one way ticket in hand and here I am in Taiwan.” He smiled confidently and mocked that maybe it is the abroad experience that has pulled him out of the Neet life and makes him positive and ambitious. “A new and exciting life is before me. I want to prepare for the entrance exam of philosophy department in Japan’s college. This time it’s for real, I really want to fulfill the dream and I don’t care where it will lead me to.  Maybe I will go to US to learn English later in order to take the exam, I’m not sure, I am still finding the things I want to do and before I can finally make up my mind to settle down I want to learn and experience different things and enjoy my life. After all, you never know what will happen in the future.”

He thanked me for visiting him and said I’m welcome to visit whenever I want to. Walking down the stairs and left the buildings, I felt something was lost in me. It was like the fat and disgusting figure warning everyone who try to run away from their responsibility and don’t fulfill the task the society ask them to do, they will be excluded and become lonely. They will live in shame and self-hate, escaping the horrible reality forever. “働いたら負け！ ”（if you work, you lose!） It’s a common phrase used by Japanese medias on Neets who think they are not working for a noble purpose that they don’t want to become a screw in the big social machine, to laugh at their fear of facing the truth that they are actually losers who have no courage to solve their personal problems and take up their social responsibility. Now I feel a little sympathetic for these people devaluating Neet group in order to hide their jealousy toward this kind of freedom. Because most of them must have failed and distressed in the process of chasing their childhood’s dream and were forced to compromise with a secondary or even unwanted way of living. They need to maintain this “Champion in the competition of society“kind of title or they will feel they had made so much effort for nothing. I had this complex feeling toward this person and the definition of Neet. It’s like though in appearance he is now happy and content of his life, something dark and uncomfortable is hiding behind his smiling face, a sense of anxiety and confused about the unpromising future. He is still not ready to settle down in one place of society, and I don’t think he will do this in the near future. It’s the universal characters in average man and woman, to look for a better life and treatment, to gain respect and support from their families and friends, to be respected through accomplishing their dreams and enhance their social status. But what if one makes all his effort playing the “Climbing the ladder” game of society and find himself stuck in the dead end, is it still worthy to join this game? Or is it better to step aside and let others use their life time struggling up and down between the stairs. I think the Neet group had their answers from the beginning.