ABSTRACT
Our chapter investigates the high levels of subjective wellbeing displayed by young Japanese in comparison to older age groups as well as their peers in the past. Using data from the National Survey on Lifestyle Preferences, we find that different generational locations coincide with different structures of happiness, as measured in terms of satisfaction with and importance of different life domains (health, finance, family, friends, etc.). We find that having a purpose in life is a larger predictor of global happiness for the youngest age group. At the same time, financial satisfaction has no significant impact on their happiness. Contrary to our expectation, satisfaction with friends is not a significant predictor of happiness across all age groups. We do find, however, that young people who think of friends as being important for their wellbeing are actually happier, although actual satisfaction with friends does not have a significant effect. Overall, our analysis indicates that the Heisei generation sets different priorities when evaluating their life than earlier generations. As a result, they might be more satisfied than would be expected by the standards older generations set for their own life evaluation. Young people’s adaptation to a new reality can be interpreted as a form of resilience that enables them to be happy with less – at least for now.
