ABSTRACT
This chapter is about some consequences of population aging for younger generation Japanese. It first considers the extension of youth as a side effect of aging in Japan as compared to other advanced societies and then discusses the fact that demographic aging is relative, concerning not just increasing life expectancy, but also changes in the population structure. Of particular importance in this regard is the question why individual and average life expectancy gains co-occur with the failure to reproduce (extremely low birthrates). During the post-WW II decades of high economic growth, which were also marked by continuous population growth, Japan has often been portrayed as a collectivist society as distinct from the individualist West that succeeded in reconciling market forces and familialism. How true is this image of Japanese society today? The Japanese youths of today experience the conflict between familistic traditions and market requirements with full force. By inspecting some popular publications, this chapter argues that while individualism is pushing familialism into the background, young Japanese, because of growing insecurity in the labor market, still experience much social pressure to conform.
