The freeter is possibly Japan’s defining symbol of precarious work. Emma Cook defines the freeter most broadly as part-time workers between the ages of 15 and 34, that are not students and not married (36). Furthermore, these individuals (whom she positions as mostly male) are laborers in an irregular employment market. At the start of the 1990s, the ratio of irregular laborers to regular employees was marked at 18.8%, however as of 2012, that ratio grew to 33% (37). As Japan continues to undergo trying economic hardships, the role of the freeter as a mobile cipher whiling to perform dirty, dangerous, and difficult jobs (refered to as the three K’s in Japanese: kitanai, kiken, and kitsui) for little to no money or benefits continues to expand.

In the context of neoliberalism, the freeter’s image was rewritten through popular culture as a way to promote individuals taking their utility into their own hands. Various representations of the freeter showcased his (due to stringent notions of gender roles throughout Japan, the media almost always presents the freeter as a male figure) flexibility to trying economic times, or his “newfound ‘freedom’ and economic independence (Driscoll 171). However, on the political level, these freeters also served as moral panics, or groups of persons identified as a threat to already established societal values and interests (Cohen 9), because they failed to follow the traditional track tailored for Japanese youth and became undereducated and underemployed bodies that perpetuated Japan’s economic misery (Driscoll 171). Regardless of the depiction by the Japanese government or the media, the freeter’s image is constantly associated with precarious work in which those considered normal would not engage. The strength in precarity resides in its ability to exploit bodies into performing tasks that are unwanted; furthermore, with capitalism providing an eternal supply of fleeting, low paying jobs, the freeter is able to create a comfortable lifestyle of work and play embedded in insecurity and instability. 

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