There are plenty of answers that will be acceptable to many employers - "I've taken a gap year to go travelling", "I've been taking my time to find the best opp

There are plenty of answers that will be acceptable to many employers - "I've taken a gap year to go travelling", "I've been taking my time to find the best opportunity", "I've been working towards a Masters", "I've been looking after an elderly relative", "I've been doing charity work" or even "it's a tough economy, I haven't found anything yet". A gap in your employment history isn't ideal, but it isn't a complete showstopper, especially if you have valuable STEM skills. It's possible to retrain and change careers, it's possible to get a job through pure gumption, it's possible to work your way up from sales clerk to area manager. Not easy, but possible. To most Japanese companies, the idea of offering a salaried position to a 22 year old is simply inconceivable. Either you get hired out of college and become a salaryman, or you bear the black mark of the freeter for the rest of your life. If you're a freeter, your chances of prosperity and security are essentially nil. The situation for young Americans is less than ideal, but the situation for young Japanese people is Kafkaesque.