The changing predilections and life-styles of Japanese youth have become the object of enormous interest in recent years. As catchy labels such as parasite singles, freeters and hikikomori have become popularised through the Japanese and global media, much discussion has centred around exactly what should be done about Japan#xE2;#xAC;"s proliferating youth ills that cut across the domains of education, labour and welfare. This book addresses this issue by asking: why did new kinds of youth inclusion policies emerge in Japan, and how did the peculiar category #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;NEET#xE2;#xAC;" shape the development of such policies? Issues of youth policy are occurring in the very interstices of the Japanese state, the family, the labour market and the welfare system, offering a highly revealing window into wider changes in 21stcentury Japan. As such, this book will be of huge interest to students, scholars and practitioners of Japanese, East Asian and comparative social policy, welfare, culture and society.