Some 4.5M Japanese aged between 35 and 54 are living with their parents
I don&#x27;t see the &quot;illusions&quot;.  It isn&#x27;t as if these people are daily choosing their life.  There aren&#x27;t huge numbers of well-paid jobs out there for them or anyone else.  Just because someone isn&#x27;t successful doesn&#x27;t mean they are under some sort of illusion.  The word &quot;parasite&quot; also implies that these people should somehow stop living, that they are such a drain that the parasite should just let got and die rather than continue the only life available to them.<p>They may have made some mistakes, but in previous generations a few mistakes now and again was not a life sentence.  A few years off the books wasn&#x27;t a big deal in the 80s or 90s.  Now any gap in your linkedin profile is interrogated.  In Japan and elsewhere, anyone with a blot on their employment record is doomed.  And heaven help those with any criminal convictions.  Our societies today deliberately push away so many people.  It is improper of us to then say that it is entirely their fault or that they suffer illusions.  The illusion is ours, that by shunning and dispossessing people for slight imperfections we only amplify them.<p>Once upon a time there was a net of reasonable jobs that didn&#x27;t pay well but allowed people a life, low-level government jobs that took anyone willing to work hard.  But has anyone here looked at how hard it is to become a postal worker or to join the army?  Ability and willingness is no longer enough.  (I have relatives in the Canadian Armed Forces.  The application process takes at least one and sometimes many years.)