Chapter 1

# Characteristics of the Mentality & Behavior of Young People

This white paper shall define people in their 20’s or 30’s as “young people,” and conduct the analysis accordingly. Also, the period within a person’s 20’s and 30’s shall be considered “early life” (However, in some instances, people in their teens shall also be included in the analysis).

In Chapter 1, along with tracking the changes in the socioeconomic situation that surround young people, we will examine the foundation of young people’s behavior in various aspects: the characteristics of their mentality, in order to analyze what distinguishing features describe the young people of this generation as a population group.

## Section 1 Changes in the Socioeconomic Situation that Surround Young People

As a component that forms the mentality and behaviors of this generation of young people, how has Japan’s socioeconomic situation been changing? In Section 1, we shall analyze the changes in the population structure, the long-term downturn of the economy, and the advancement of internationalization, as factors that influence the shaping of young people’s mentality.

## (1) Changes in Population Structure

## (Population decline, Progressively Aging Society with Fewer Children)

After World War II, the population of Japan steadily increased, and for the first time in 1967, we had a population of over 100 million people. However, since reaching its peak in 2008 with 128.08 million, the population number has been decreasing. According to the estimates of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, by the year 2048, the population will have declined to under the 100 million mark to approximately 99.13 million, and will have decreased to 86.74 million people by year 2060 (Graphic 1). Looking at the population trend in the long-term, it appears that the population which—since the end of the Meiji period, around 1900—had been increasing over the last 100 years, will now in the next 100 years decrease, until the population is back at the same population level with which we started in the 1900s. This means Japan is facing a level of population decline that we have yet to see in history (Graphic 2).

As for the number of young people, it was close to 36 million in 1970, and in 2010, approximately 32 million. However, that number has been estimated to drop below half the previous numbers, with roughly 15 million young people by the year 2060. The ratio of young people in the total population has also been in decline. In 1970, young people accounted for 35% (approx. 1 in 3 people) of the population, whereas in 2010, 25.1% (approx. 1 in 4 people). By 2060 the ratio is estimated to decrease to 17.4% (approx. 1 in 6 people).

This decline in the population of young people is due to the drop in number of infants born. When looking at the trend for the number of infants born after WWII, the late 1940s saw the first baby boom, then in early 1970s, the second baby boom. After these two baby boom periods however, the number of infants born decreased, with a sharp drop from later 1970s to the 1980s. The number of infants born has been in steady decline since then, with a record low in number of births in 2011 (1.05 million births). The total fertility rate (the sum of the age-specific fertility rates of women aged 15 to 49 in a given year, equivalent to the average number of children that would be born per woman if all women bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age) in 1947 was 4.54, yet by 1975 the rate had decreased to 1.91, and in 2005 it hit a record low of 1.26 (Graphic 3).