To keep the nation’s young and out-of-work busy and off the state dole, the Japanese Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry plans to send next year some 2,000 candidates for training at 40 designated camps. They will stay there during three months, keeping to a strict daily regimen, eating together and learning about self-discipline, work ethics and job-hunting.

The program is designed to reverse a growing trend among young Japanese who show no interest in having a job.

Details of the program won’t be finalized until the Cabinet approves the next fiscal year’s budget in the coming months, but it seems that those who sign on will stay with about 20 others for an intensive three-week course, learning the basics of self-reliance.

They will also be taught self-discipline, ethics and work etiquette, and will get support looking for jobs. Food will be their only cost.

Organizations and companies running the camps will be paid extra for enrollees who stay employed after the program.

Over five years, the budget would rise as the program expands to include some 20,000 trainees and dozens of businesses and organizations.

From The Japan Times, via Fun / Foon Tokyo.