@kn2549

2 years ago

Every Japanese person knows that the late 90s and the early 2000s were some of the most depressing times in modern Japan lol. Especially if you were a teenager or a young adult. Low employment, school bullying, weird and unsettling crimes, young people giving up on life, suicides etc all skyrocketed around this time. I feel like this is when mental health really started to become a problem in Japan. You started to see a bit of societal decay around this time among the younger generation. The 80s and the early 90s was the golden time of Japan, but the late 90s and early 2000s was something else. Its such an interesting era in Japan. There were tons of subcultures and trends created by the younger generation in this era that came to define Japanese pop culture, yet it seemed like it was kind of a coping method among teenagers and young adults. For some reason, the Gen Z generation in western countries today really reminds me of the young Japanese people during this time. Btw, the high rate of suicides, single adults, hikikomori, extreme political spectrums(both right wing and left wing) in Japan today are usually the generation that were teenagers and young adults in this era(now in their late 30s-40s). Also, its this generation thats partly responsible for Japan’s decreasing population. Something to think about if you are a Gen Z in other countries. If you think the social problems in Japan today is bad, its nothing compared to what it was 20 years ago. Atleast were improving in some parts though.

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