Ежегодник Япония (Dec 2021)
Japan: Lockdown Generation
Abstract
In 2020–2021, in Japan, the problems caused by several waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have been added to the challenges related to the aging of the population and the increasing workload of the young generation. Young Japanese face numerous shocks caused by disruptions of educational system, employment, and income, as well as great difficulties regarding job hunting and emotional and psychological problems associated with changes in the usual style of life. The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools and universities to close and this reality has forced a crash course of online learning and adopting new IT technologies on students and faculty. Digitalization of the education has progressed quickly as a result of the pandemic, and it has many positive effects, such as enabling the youth to continue receiving education and working online. However, a digital “gap” has emerged with regard to young people’s unequal access to technology and various online activities. The traditional lifestyle of the Japanese people presupposes close and constant interaction between people in companies and school classes. Thus, the social distancing and self-isolation measures required during the pandemic can be perceived as coercive. One of the responses to these challenges was the rapidly spreading practice of onrain dōsei (living together online), when young visitors of video chats do not even communicate, but simply stay online together to go about their daily activities. In this paper, the above-mentioned range of issues is considered in relation to the Japanese youth, whose problems have already (at the first stage of the epidemic, in 2020 – early 2021) revealed their own characteristics associated with the specifics of the political, economic, social, and everyday life in the country. We compare the Japanese approaches with the methods of solving similar problems used in other countries, firstly in the Asia Pacific and the USA.
Keywords
