Setting the Bar Really Low

This is definitely a sign of Japan's impending doom.

Takeshi Yamashita does not look like a homeless person.

From his carefully distressed jeans to his casual-cool navy striped T-shirt, he is every bit the trendy Tokyoite.

Yet the 26-year-old has been sleeping in a reclining seat in an Internet cafe every night for the past month since he lost his steady office job and his apartment.

It's cheaper than a hotel, offers access to the Internet and hundreds of Manga comic books, and even has a microwave and a shower where he can wash in the morning before heading off to one of his temporary jobs ranging from cleaning to basic office work.

Asked how long he plans to go on living like that, Yamashita smiles and shrugs.

"I hope the situation in Japan will improve. The new Japanese generation doesn't have any money, and many young people don't have any motivation. I don't have money, but I have a dream," he says, sitting in a cubicle with a PC and a stack of comic books.

So what is his dream?

"I don't know. Maybe some ordinary job in an office."

Way to go Takeshi. Be the best drone you can be. What kind of society crushes the life out of its people so that they hope to work at a desk? What is the source of this? Education? The employment system? A bit of both? Maybe instead of being chained to a desk, workers would be better served by being "set free" and paid based on what they produce?