I lived in Japan for 5 years and left. I was gone for 5 years and came back.
At first everything seemed as if it had been frozen in time. Little things here and there were different though, and the more I paid attention to it, the more profound the differences became. I realized that the millennials had, however subtly finally started to have an influence on society, and it permeated everything. Most people don't notice it at first, but when pointed out it is undeniable.
Japan can be considered a place where people respect their elders, but much stronger is the feeling that one must respect the “Wa” (the harmony or atmosphere), and one way people do that is by just leaving things be, trying not to do anything out of the ordinary or standing out.
I personally never felt like people in japan respected elders, I always felt that they were afraid of standing out, and one sure way to stand out would be to speak up against elders.
It’s also less about objective age and more about subjective age and so the younger you are OR the earlier you joined a company or group, the lower you are on the latter. And so older people run the company and department, less because they’re old and more because they’ve been there longer.
The Bubble Generation
Baby boomers in Japan believe strongly that working longer is better, and that it’s important to keep their own opinions private (unless they are the leader of course). They pay much more attention to hours or dollars spent than to quality of work and are very fond of staying inside their comfort zone.
Men work and women cook and take care of the home. If you ask a Japanese woman of 50+ years old if she cooks, she may even get offended, “3 times a day, of course”. Almost no men from this generation cook. I really feel for the women of this generation who were strong enough to get an education and work and still put up with these rigid gender roles. Men from this generation tend to put their company above everything else, and will do anything their company asks of them. The loyalty used to go both ways.
The older generation is considered the Bubble generation because they started working at a time when the Japanese economy was so good that companies over-hired, paid well, and people could just cruise by without really knowing what they were doing.
As my post-bubble local friend so bluntly put it “they know how to look like they’re doing a good job but they can’t actually do anything”.
The Post-Bubble Generation
These are similar in age to Gen Xers in America. They tend to follow the same social rules and go along with things the same way as their older counterparts, but their true feelings show through a whole lot more. They will speak far more directly when they feel comfortable with you, though some are still very reluctant to get comfortable or close with others.
There is far more variety among them. With the Bubble generation, it feels like everyone is identical. The post-bubblers look like that on the surface but you can bet they have unique perspectives that they are comfortable having, it’s just a matter of whether or not they share it. They have respect for non-locals for being more outgoing and many want to be more outgoing themselves, though you don’t get a sense of blind admiration.
These people are general much more capable but they are extremely overworked, and because they are still trying to follow the rules of the old world, many of them haven’t even noticed that times have changed. Many think they are the only ones who are more open-minded and so they often miss the reality that many of their co-workers or peers feel the same as them. They will share their opinions in 1 on 1 situations but rarely in groups unless they belong to some subculture, and many people do.
I find people from this age group tend to all have hobbies that they devote a lot of time and energy to outside work, and also make friends based on these hobbies.
I found one curious but logical trend among people my age, and it may be true in other countries too. If they subscribe to Netflix or YouTube most often they tend to be much more comfortable talking about their thoughts and ideas openly. If they watch cable TV, they are still stuck in the old patterns of their parents generation. It seems to be half and half though.
Zoomers
I can’t speak much about this generation because I haven’t spent much time with them but there are a few things I noticed.
They don’t really seem to “give a shit”. It doesn’t seem that they are being rebellious but they don’t really seem to want to follow a lot of the old norms of their parents. Sometimes it feels like they don’t know how to. They almost feel like foreigners and so it’s easy for me to relate.
A few years ago you’d walk into a convenience store and the clerk was a robot who would never give a real smile, or talk with their coworkers casually let alone with a customer. If you asked them a question that wasn’t part of their script, they’d malfunction and get super awkward. With post-bubblers they fake it unless they feel safe to go off script. With zoomers though, they awkwardly follow the rules while laughing and making mistakes and trying to enjoy themselves as much as they can.
They do mostly seem to use tiktok and like k-pop though, so that’s one thing I can’t relate to, but aside from that, I find them really pleasant and promising and I have high hopes for how they help the culture evolve!
That's just my take, and I'm not a local, but I see a whole lot here. I'd really be interested in hearing a Japanese persons perspective in detail. 日本人じゃありませんから観察しかできない、いろいろ経験はないんですから、日本人の目から見るとどう思うかな。。。本当に知りたいです。
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This was my response to the biweekly Culture Question: 🌎🌎🌎"What kind of difference do you feel with older or younger generations in your country or community?" 🌎🌎🌎
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