ABSTRACT

Japan is not only the oldest society in the world today, but also the oldest society to have ever existed. This aging trend, however, presents many challenges to contemporary Japan, as it permeates all areas of life, from the economy and welfare to social cohesion and population decline. Nobody is more affected by these changes than the young generation.

This book studies Japanese youth in the aging society in detail. It analyses formative events and cultural reactions. Themes include employment, parenthood, sexuality, but also art, literature and language, thus demonstrating how the younger generation can provide insights into the future of Japanese society more generally. This book argues that the prolonged crisis resulted in a commonly shared destabilization of thoughts and attitudes and that this has shaped a new generation that is unlike any other in post-war Japan.

Presenting an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the aging trend and what it implies for young Japanese, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, as well cultural anthropology and demography.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

Studying the young generation in super-aging Japan

part II|97 pages

Cultural and emotional reactions

chapter 9|18 pages

The structure of happiness

Why young Japanese might be happy after all

chapter 10|16 pages

Life on the small screen

Japan’s Digital Natives

chapter 11|17 pages

Dialect cosplay

Language use by the young generation

chapter 12|15 pages

No family, no school

Young people in literature by young Japanese writers

chapter 13|16 pages

Visualizing elders by young artists

Age and generational differences

part |13 pages

Conclusions

chapter 14|11 pages

Social rejuvenation and change

The resilient generation of the Heisei period