On the evening of June 9, the fourth lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online, which was organized by the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. Professor Tomoaki Ishii from the School of Commerce, Meiji University was invited to make a presentation titled Global Labor Market Flexibility and New Forms of Employment in the Digital Economy. The lecture aimed to broaden the international horizon of teachers and students, and explore the Chinese path of high-quality youth employment to common prosperity. It was attended by Professor Fu Deyin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the CULR, and more than 140 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the CULR listened online.

In the concluding remark, President Fu Deyin expressed gratitude to Professor Tomoaki Ishii for his impressive lecture. He commented that the lecture gives a full picture of the current situation and existing problems of youth employment in Japan in the era of declining birth rates, as well as the responsive measures of the government, which is enlightening and worthy of reference. He exchanged views with Professor Tomoaki Ishii on whether the "NEET group" is a normal phenomenon when productivity attains a high level. On behalf of the CULR, he also invited Professor Tomoaki Ishii to visit our university when the pandemic ends, so as to further promote and strengthen intercollegiate cooperation and academic exchange.

In the lecture, Professor Tomoaki Ishii explained the situation and issues of youth employment in Japan in the era of declining birth rates by the data of serial investigations, gave a rough picture of the NEET group in Japan and analyzed the cause of the NEET group, the governmental measures addressing the declining birth rates and youth employment and the cause of NEET as a social issue. In light of the detailed data from Japan's 2018 Youth Employment Survey, he probed into the status of youth employment and labor market from the perspectives of working environment, enterprise type, sector, education level, gender, working hours, etc. of the young generation, and classified Japan as an "employment-type" (member-type) society. He noted that China is facing a similar situation to the developed countries, and should not ignore the existence of the NEET group in the era of declining birth rates, and Japan still has a long way to go to tackle the youth employment issues in the time of declining birth rates.

In the consultation session, Zhang Chenggang, Director of the China Research Center on New Forms of Employment and Associate Professor of the School of Labor Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, outlined China's relevant policies, and made a systematic comparison with the lecture content of Professor Tomoaki Ishii. He also explained the unemployment of young people in China and both formal and informal classification methods of young employees, and analyzed the common cause of low birth rates and the NEET group. In his view, as a social and economic phenomenon, the NEET group also exists in China. China is facing an inevitable trend of an aging society and the policymakers should target providing assistance to youth employment.