I know a very bright college student named Zach Duffy who has been granted a Watson Fellowship to study issues of youth unemployment in seven countries, one of which is Japan (see http://www.watsonfellowship.org/site/fellows/12_13.html
and scroll down to Zach Duffy). He intends to go to Japan beginning in August for about 7-8 weeks. He'd like to meet academics, NGOs, officials and others.
He'd prefer people who can speak English because funds to hire an interpreter are very limited. He is not a Japan expert but wants to open himself to a range of related topics. He wrote to me:

I'm looking for people who can speak to me with authority on the issue of youth unemployment in Japan - what are its causes, dynamics, etc - as well as the programs that Japan's government or NGOs have put in place to help those young people into the workplace. It could also include the subject of hikikomori, who never really make it to a job-search in the first place, or more recently I've been reading a lot about soushoku danshi and the relation of that phenomenon to youth unemployment. So, I have two main groups of people I'm looking to talk to: 1) academics who can talk to me about in broad strokes about the issue of youth unemployment, and 2) people who are doing the on-the-ground work, running programs to deal with Japan's societal and economic barriers and help young people into the workforce.

He has a very open and curious mind, having spent a "gap year" before college to study religious practices in India. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot from him in the coming years.

If you are in a position to help, either because of your own expertise or because you know someone else with expertise, please email me at rbkatz@ix.netcom.com and I'll forward your email to him and have him contact you directly.

Thanks for your help.

Richard Katz
The Oriental Economist Report