ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s, the entry into the world of work and then marriage and parenthood were the characteristic conditions of access to adulthood in Japan. The situation has now changed, partly because of the economic crisis and partly because of changes in higher education. In this chapter, I demonstrate how the changing educational modalities are producing generational effects. The neoliberal reforms implemented since the beginning of the 2000s have modified the Japanese education system, affecting its nature, goals, and philosophy. These incremental reforms were not immediately perceptible by the population, but resulted – strengthened by the already evoked demographic decline and the economic crisis of the past two decades – in a general disorientation of the young and their parents, and ultimately in the erosion of their faith in the educational system. For the first time in several decades, the generation born from 1990 onwards does not have to fight or have to invest particular efforts to “enter university”. The university degrees this generation earns do not guarantee them automatic access to a safe and wealthy professional life. Furthermore, this generation discovered or experienced the fact that poverty or low parental income could be a barrier for them to advance school education as far as they themselves would like. This chapter focuses on these points and discusses their effects as “generation-making” mechanisms.
