Being Young in Super-Aging Japan : Formative Events and Cultural Reactions

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.

Patrick Heinrich is Associate Professor at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy. His recent publications include (with Dick Smakman) Urban Sociolinguistics (Routledge 2017) and The Making of Monolingual Japan (2012).

Christian Galan is Professor at Toulouse-Jean Jaurès University, France and researcher at the CEJ-Inalco in Paris. His recent publications include (with E. Lozerand) La Famille japonaise moderne (1868-1926) (2011) and (with J.-M. Olivier) Histoire du & au Japon (2016).