It may have come as a surprise to many that, according to a recent survey,
Japan ranks 24th in happiness compared to those countries enjoying far
less economic progress. Indeed, despite the many reports of Japan's
unequaled postwar economic miracle, increases in hiring of university
graduates or a recovery from the recent recession, there seems to be a
bit of a backlash from the affluence the Japanese have been enjoying.
To be sure, all countries want to achieve a certain degree of
prosperity. Especially for those coming from impoverished regions,
material want on many occasions might serve as the driving force for
success. I still remember meeting Nigerians (number 2 in the survey) in
some big cities of Indonesia such as Yogyakarta, Semarang and Jakarta
who traveled the entire world looking for cheaper but quality products
to be shipped back to their country.
For them, poverty was a blessing in disguise, for it encourages
migration and entrepreneurship. So much so that even in Tanjung Priok
area, Jakarta's export-import port, one can find Nigerian cargo offices
that take care of the shipping of purchases back to their country. Once
the goods reach Nigeria, family members operating a variety of business
will resell them at a higher price.
What is not conveyed then in the smile of the smartly dressed generation
of Japanese young adults? Or am I mistaken in calling it a smile? To
wit, even a part-time job in Japan can earn you enough to have fun with
friends. Otherwise, there would be no good reason for the influx of
Westerners allured by the millions at stake in the English-teaching
industry.
How should we correlate Japan's low level of happiness and its well-known economic prowess?
I tried to talk to some of the Japanese I have befriended in the last 6
months. In sum, their attitudes to the affluence may be seen in two
ways. For the older generation who are in their late 50s, there is a
tendency to consider the young adults as "floaters." They state that the
young Japanese have no memory of the hardships following the end of the
Second World War. In my Japanese teacher's words, the youngsters do not
really share the collective social responsibility of taking care of the
elders. She expressed her concerns over the evident reluctance among
the young to work hard the way the older generation did to pay for
public services and retirement funds. They simply had a vague notion,
she concluded, of "filial duty."
On the other hand, one of my younger Japanese teachers, who is a
university student, fretted about job security. She pointed to the
discrepancy between her generation and the more powerful and financially
secure elders. The youth tries to seize the opportunities their rich
country provides. But at the same time, deep within them, there is
always a question of how far they can survive the ever-widening earnings
gaps that make them anxious about a bleak future.
I could not believe what I heard. True, finding a part-time job is easy
for the average Japanese. Also true however is the fact that earnings
can not always pay the rent. The older generation financially
established themselves at a time when Japan still firmly held to the
lifetime employment system. Things are no longer the same nowadays for
the 2.81 million unemployed. Meanwhile, jobs are on a much shorter
contract basis, extendable if deemed appropriate by the company. These
multitudes are consequently forced to work as temps. As such, they have
to deal with the unavoidable fear of being laid off the moment the
contract is due.
Upward mobility is an illusion when a full-time job career is nowhere to
be found. As my Japanese student teacher confided, she has sent
applications to many companies both in Kobe and Osaka and has also
attended job seminars. So far, no promising results. She feels deeply
disappointed as her final days in the university draw near. She can
surely grab any low-skilled job as a "freeter"
or freelance worker or even get a position as a salaried employee. But
still, the problem remains whether it is on a short contract basis only
or if it does provide a sure step to a permanent job. The cycle of
anxieties starts from this point. Simultaneously, these colliding
concerns split the younger and older Japanese into a different set of
worries but with a common trait: the paradox of unhappiness.
I think it is worth reexamining the "irresponsible floater attitude"
within the context of what has been discussed above. It can possibly be
symptomatic of a host of conflicting sentiments the youngsters harbor.
With the uncertainties they face, the youngsters experience a strained
dilemma. They have to live up to the tension of social obligation
demanded from them while they see no real prospects at the workplace.
The sense of malaise is demographically reinforced as the country is by
2050 expecting to support more and more people 80 years of age and
older--a population that could be 37 percent larger than that of the
country's total number of children.
How can the Japanese young adults shoulder the burden of keeping the
economy afloat if they are deprived of the economic growth in the first
place? How could they be expected to fill up the nation's pension funds
if they are financially insecure and beaten?
Kobe, 2007
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