The subject of where I see myself in 20 years has been a recent topic of discussion (still thinking about it, I blame a society that offers too many choices, not enough guidance). So I found it an odd coincidence that Japan Today has recently printed, with no sense of journalistic responsibility, a shady survey done by weekly magazine SPA! measuring where Japanese men see themselves in 10 years. Go ahead and read for yourself, but I ound this part to be the most interesting:

A generation ago, notes Spa!, a survey like this would have been pointless. Life ran on the rails then; people knew what was in store for them. If you were entry-level in 1975, by 1985 you’d be a “kacho” or section head, making so-much a year, married, living in a house you could visualize as clearly as you could the company dorm you’d be going home to that night — and so on. The predictability was dull but secure. Almost no one would have said, as 30% do now, that they expect to be unemployed in 10 years, surviving on occasional jobs. Still less would anyone have foreseen — as 6% do today — homelessness.

WTF? I’ll admit this is the first survey I’ve seen that asks such a question, who in the hell actually “expects” to be homeless?! I mean, if that was actually a concern of yours, wouldn’t you try and at least DO something about it? Just asking.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2005 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Curiosities, Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.