Thursday, September 20, 2007

The increasing number of mentally ill people in Japan

In our society, the increasing number of mentally ill people is one of the biggest problems. If we don’t take measures on this problem, we will lose national strength in international market. Now, I’ll talk about the possible cause and its negative effect here.

First, about the possible cause. Performance based system, so called merit system has been installed in our society for the last two decades. As a negative aspect of performance based system, it generated stressful working environment. Employees are driven by the pressure that they need to bear fruits. Some people lack their confidence and they evaluate themselves as looser when they can’t performe well. Mental instability bears social withdrawal, as a worst case, it causes suicide. For example, one of my subordinates who left our office due to mental depression confessed me that he was willing to accept low wage if he could escape from the performance based evaluation.

Next, about negative effect. Labor shortage and a few successors for technology and craftsmanship would be serious crisis in our society. According to the demographic statistics, one in four in 2025 would be over 65 years old. Even now, we suffer from demographic imbalance. Absolute denominator of entire population is becoming small. Among this environment, loosing work force due to mental illness makes the matter worse. Besides, it’s difficult to succeed technology to younger generation. Let me take the same subordinate’s case once again for example. Apparently, we lost one personnel to succeed our accumulated knowledge and experience. Nowadays, high technology such as mobile phone with multiple function is so complicated. Younger engineers need time to master the distinguished knowledge and enhance it. I’m worry about whether we have time to succeed.

In conclusion, we need to stop increasing number of mentally ill people. Or else we will loose our nation’s strength and compositeness in international market.

No comments: