“The job was pretty strenuous as we were facing 160 degrees Celsius. It was really hot. Our clothes would be all wet with sweat when working. We wore two pairs of gloves when we picked out the materials from the mold” ¹

  “We’d work for 12 hours over there [at prior job], from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. Besides, you had to stay at the factory or the dormitory all day and night.” ¹ 

"Migrant workers are frequently required to take on workloads exceeding the legal limits of 212 working hours
 per month, including overtime” ¹

Perhaps most shockingly, in 2005, 47% of workers in precarious labor did not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the US $2 a day per person poverty line.²  

What precarious work actually looks like in East Asia also differs drastically geographically. In Japan, the creation and growth of the precariat into occupying a significant role in the market and in the global realm of labor stretches back to the 1980s. Another characteristic of precarious labor unique to Japan is that due to its recent economic history, the spike in conditions creating precarious labor were a direct result of corporations and industry cutting back on costs by turning to migrant labor and hiring a temporary workforce.

In South Korea there was a large increase in precarious labor in the 2000s and it took the form of irregular and self-employed precarious workers, mainly white collar workers and former business professionals opening up internet cafes and PC Bangs as the video game and internet market took off. 

In China, what pushed the youth into precarious labor the most were changes in policies regarding industry and a proliferation of neoliberal reforms.