Student Material
Adapted from Merry White, "The Material Child," Free Press, New York, NY, 1993, pg. 200-221.

A. Self-examination

2nd year high school girl: "I am active and take high pride in myself I like to be a winner .. but I jump in fast without considering. But, as in a maze, we can take another way when we hit a wall. The more you do, the more walls you may hit, which I think will improve your understanding of who you are.

Senior high school boy: "I must discipline myself to be a good man. We have ups and downs in our life. I must overcome difficulties, be a man who is respected, and have a good future. "

Senior high school boy: "I am timid, weak-willed, indecisive and irresponsible .. I have no patience, no willpower, no endurance, no concentration power. I am both optimistic and pessimistic. I have no good points, and I am hard to understand .. Generally Japanese are easily molded by others and lose their identities, and therefore it is difficult for me to know what I believe. I, being immature and underdeveloped, still have a long way to go to see my beliefs.

B. Friendship, Continuities and Choices

Senior high school boy: "While I was at the bus stop, cars were passing in front of me.. I imagined them going along the same road for a while, then some turning to the left, others to the right, each going to his/her own destination. Until they came to a turning Point, they all have the same destination but in the end they arrive at different places because of their own goals, thoughts and wills... That's us, now, I think... We have been together so far, but as we each have our own ways, we have to say good-bye someday. That's what I'm afraid of Of course, I have to keep going: we have to look ahead and go step by step in the process of growing up. "

Senior high school girl: "Indecisive as I am, I cannot make a quick choice, especially when I like both alternatives. I am easily influenced by others and I buy things which look cute on them, although I am not too fashion-conscious. I tend to take my friend's advice on what I should get... People say I'm oraka (happy, loose). I suppose I could take it to mean toroi (slow, dumb), but I'm not bothered.. Overall I like the way I am.

C. Role Models and Inspirations Japanese boys often choose a teacher as role model, citing it selflessness," "dedication," "friendliness," and "strictness" as qualities to be emulated. Japanese girls choose their mothers, citing similar qualities in them, even though the self-sacrifice of some mothers appear pointless to their daughters. Some girls noted that their mothers may not have had a choice in their lives: they had to be 100% housewives or 200% workers and housewives. The first to some seems empty; the second over-full and oppressive. They usually admit their mothers, but wondered if these were the only choices.

High school boy: "I don't want to be like anyone .. I want my own self, my own pace ... I'd like to emulate qualities in others I admire, but I'd like to be myself "

D. The Future

Adults in Japan complain of low engagement in teens. A teacher complained that today's teens were "small-bore," rather than "large-bore" as he said they were in his youth. He feels they have too narrow a range and shallow ambitions and that they have no heroes and don't make large efforts towards major goals. Other teachers call their students "aliens," "wandering bats," "mental bean sprouts"... others have said that teens are superficial and standardized as the product of media and marketing.

... Most Japanese youth, particularly in high school, feel they have only a limited choice, but do not seem frustrated by this. In saying they will have ordinary lives, they do not mean pointless ones... Vaulting ambition is not seen in Japanese teens, whereas high-flying goals are part of the rhetoric of American youth... Girls want to be dressmakers, or work in cosmetic industries, or teach - boys seem interested in small but independent businesses such as shopkeeping and coffeeshop management.

... Japanese youths are more likely both to follow parental occupations and to seek direction from parents than are American youth.

High school senior girl: "I don't want to live by myself.. I just don't think I can take care of myself.... I'd be all right emotionally, but from what I hear, you have to do laundry yourself. Clean, cook - all of that."

18 year-old college freshman girl, Yokohama: "I don't want marriage, children and housekeeping. I have many friends who want to stay single, and when we write to each other, we talk about living together communally if possible... I might end up living and working just for myself.. I like to live the way I like, though I don't know myself well yet."

E. Realities

Young people in Japan perceive economic distinctions and their most immediate experience is as consumers. As the targeted audience of consumer industries and the media, youth are actively wooed as purchasers, and wooed through friendships. The media provides "shopping training," and the market place is the most favored form of leisure activity. Keeping up the Satos may lead to embarrassment. In Japan, the youth are said to be strongly materialistic.

F. Ideas and Ideals

Whether or not Japanese teens are "small-bore" or "lacking in motivation" and "immature," they do represent a new generation to older Japanese. Are they the new materialistic, the new independents, the new individualists? ... Like their American counterparts, they are not as evidently or radically different from their parents as teens in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

G. Relationships and Relativity

... the recent increase in affluence has had two affects on adolescents. The first is to widen the gap between children with money adequate to keep up in the consumer culture and those without such resources. The second is to create a larger pool of candidates for elite and prestigious educational opportunities - forcing the educational system to provide preparation for increasingly competitive examinations at high school and college entrance levels. This pressured selection system tends to label children by academic achievement at younger and younger ages, in spite of the premise that university entrance is a meritocratic process open to all.