Japan had a system in which the companies had a paternal relationship with their employees.  Once you were hired, they kept you on even if they didn&#x27;t need you.  Even if you&#x27;d become too old to be productive (madogiwa zoku, or &quot;window seat tribe&quot;).  The welfare system, such as it was, consisted of companies taking care of their employees with government bureaucrats and public opinion punishing transgressors.<p>But that kind of system can only function when the economy is growing.  When the recession started in 1989 Japanese companies found themselves in the position of either making people they didn&#x27;t need redundant or going out of business.  Since there isn&#x27;t much of a social safety net for the unemployed, people who got laid off (and the growing ranks of part timers - &quot;arubaito&quot;) didn&#x27;t have anywhere to turn.