The Transformation of Youth Attitudes to Economic Success in Japan

The purposes of this study are to reveal the transformation of youth attitudes to economic success in 2000s Japan, and to consider the youth under unequalizing in the society which has the legacy of equality. Though the Japanese society had been seen as an egalitarian society from Western societies, it has being transformed to an unstable society with liquidity and disparity since the end of the 20th century. Particularly the situation of youth employment was becoming worse and has not recover after the bubble economy from mid-and-long term perspective. In this situation, the social challenge is how to recover people’s motivation not just current economic gap.

In this study, we analyze the quantitative data which was collected in Suginami (Tokyo) and Kobe in 2002 and 2012 by the Japan Youth Study Group. Respondents aged from 16 to 29 were randomly sampled. 

Major findings of our first analysis are summarized as follows: First, the percentage of young people who think of “individual effort” as the most important factor of economic success is little different between 2002 and 2012. Second, in 2012 the percentage of young people who think of “individual talent” as the most important factor of economic success is about 10% less than that in 2002. In contrast, in 2012 the percentage of young people who think of “family environment” as the most important factor of economic success is about 10% more than that in 2002.

This difference can be contemplated that economic success for the youth are transformed from the individual matter to the social matter. This may mean the penetration both of the sense of inequality and the awareness that this matter should be treated publicly, not personally. In the presentation, we will discuss the impact of this transformation on the Japanese society and youth.