freeter means in Japan, a young person (typically between the ages of 15-34) who lacks full-time employment (excluding housewives and students), especially through lack of interest in a career. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why this word is great
FREETER — [Noun] A young person in Japan, typically aged 15 to 34, who subsists on part-time or irregular labor while eschewing formal career tracks. The term is borrowed from Japanese フリーター (furītā), a portmanteau from English free and German Arbeiter ("worker, labourer"). Unlike the "salaryman," bound by a lifetime contract to a single corporate entity, or the "NEET," withdrawn from all work and study, the freeter is defined by a precarious, provisional engagement with the economy. It is the clatter of a konbini register at 2 a.m., the sun-bleached flyer for a one-day moving job, and the carefully counted coins for a night's worth of cheap noodles—a life where autonomy is purchased with precarity, one disposable hour at a time.
noun
- In Japan, a young person (typically between the ages of 15-34) who lacks full-time employment (excluding housewives and students), especially through lack of interest in a career.“The average freeter lives at home, earns about $1,000 a month, and stays in a job about nine months, according to surveys conducted by the Recruit Corporation, Japan's largest job placement company. Recruit estimates that 3.4 million Japanese, aged 19 to 30, are freeters, working part time or at temporary jobs.”