India's Youth Unemployment and Japan's Old Phrase, "I Graduated from University, But..."

A Different Side of India

Earlier, I was watching a YouTube video explaining the current situation in India.

When I think of India, the usual images are:

• high GDP growth
• an IT powerhouse
• the world’s largest population
• a promising future

I had that image too.

And in reality, I do not think that impression is wrong.

But the video focused on a slightly different side of the country.

Youth unemployment seems to be quite serious.

What especially caught my attention was the issue of unemployment among highly educated young people.

For a long time in India, education has been an important way to change one’s life.

Study hard and enter a good university.

Learn English.

Acquire qualifications.

Get a good job and move up socially.

The long history of the caste system probably forms part of the background to this way of thinking.

But while the number of university graduates has increased dramatically, there have not been enough white-collar jobs to absorb them.

As a result, a strange situation seems to be emerging.

They graduated from university.

They can speak English.

And still, they cannot find a job.

Even when they do find work, it may only be unstable work such as delivery jobs or contract employment.

The economy is growing.

But there are not enough places for young people to go.

It is a strange and unsettling picture.

Messages from Indian Students

Now that I think about it, I sometimes receive messages from Indian students on LinkedIn.

They usually say something like:

“I want to work in Japan.”

And the messages are written in perfectly normal English.

At first, I was surprised.

But after watching that video, I understood it a little more.

From their point of view, Japan is an advanced country with a labor shortage.

It probably looks like a place with opportunities.

The reality, however, is not so simple.

I have never replied to those messages.

It is not because I want to be unkind.

It is because I know what Japanese workplaces are like.

The IT industry is one of the easier fields in Japan to work in using only English, but even there, it is difficult without Japanese.

There are meetings.

There are interactions with customers.

There are contracts.

In the end, if you want to work in Japan, Japanese becomes necessary.

So even if I understand their enthusiasm, I also know that the practical barriers are high.

Japan’s Old Phrase: “I Graduated from University, But…”

Thinking about this reminded me of an old phrase from Japan.

It was from my parents’ generation.

Apparently, there was once a popular expression:

“I graduated from university, but…”

The number of university students increased.

But many jobs in society were still centered on physical labor, such as factory work and construction.

The economy was growing.

There were jobs.

But there were not yet that many jobs for university graduates.

So a situation emerged where people could say:

“I graduated from university, but I have nowhere to work.”

Somehow, this overlaps with what seems to be happening in India today.

Education and Industrial Structure Move at Different Speeds

When we talk about economic growth, we tend to imagine that everyone becomes richer.

But reality is not that simple.

Increasing the number of universities and increasing the number of jobs for university graduates are separate problems.

Education takes only a few years.

But changing an industrial structure can take decades.

That time lag creates a gap between:

• the speed at which highly educated people increase
• the speed at which jobs for highly educated people increase

And that gap leads to unemployment among highly educated people.

That happened in Japan in the past.

Perhaps something similar is happening in India today.

Of course, the two countries are completely different.

Their population sizes are different.

Their economic structures are different.

Even so, there is something similar in the structure itself.

Young people believe that if they study hard, the future will open up.

They make that effort.

Then they run into a society that does not have enough places to receive them.

Japan Has Too Few Young People, India Has Too Many

In Japan, population aging and a declining birthrate are major issues.

There are not enough young people.

There are not enough workers.

There are also arguments that Japan should accept more foreign workers.

Meanwhile, India seems to have too many young people and not enough jobs.

Japan has a shortage of young people.

India has an excess of young people.

If we only look at the numbers, it almost seems as if both countries could complement each other.

But in reality, language, culture, and institutions create many barriers.

It is not such a simple story.

The world really is not designed very neatly.