TOKYO -- The plight of Japan's "lost generation" -- mainly comprising people in their 40s or early 50s -- is persisting, as they struggle to keep pace with the pay growth and career advancement commonly seen in both older and younger age groups.
This generation graduated from high school or college during a hiring "ice age" that lasted from the late 1990s into the 2000s, with many finding it tough to find stable employment after the bursting of a bubble economy inflated during the 1980s by soaring real estate and stock prices.
