Japan The Lost Generation
1840
Shots of schoolground Music 00:00
Bare chested children run into school ground Simkin: On a bitterly cold morning, the children at Tokyos Daini Hikari kindergarten come out to play. 00:26
At this Spartan school, the uniform is no uniform those who are ill are allowed to wear shirts -- the rest receive little sympathy, even on days like today, when its just a few degrees above zero.
The aim is to toughen the youngsters up physically and mentally. 00:56
Children play Principal: The aim is to toughen the body. When you feel the cold, your body shivers, your nose runs and your insides take the actions necessary to deal with the temperature. 01:08
Principal Thats why we exercise every day and carry out bare-chested education it helps make them healthy from the core of their being. 01:225
Music
Children at assembly Children: Good morning principal, good morning teachers. 01:38
Simkin: Survivors Few schools in Japan are as tough as this one, but the values it promotes are typical -- hard work, discipline, fierce competition. 01:48
Children race each other Traditionally, Japans education system has been a frantic race to the top. 02:03
Children in class For decades, the system worked brilliantly, churning out the corporate samurai who helped Japanese industry outpace the world. 02:14
But this much-vaunted system is coming apart, and more and more children are falling through the cracks. 02:26
Ogi: We are not facing a youth crisis so much as a crisis of Japanese society itself.
Ogi We no longer know how to bring up children Our society is gripped by a functional disorder. 02:49
Mountains of Nagano Music
Students arrive at cram school Simkin: For many people, the mountains of Nagano are a peaceful retreat from the pressures of Tokyo -- but not for these students. Theyve given up their holidays to attend live-in cram school -- studying from 8.30 in the morning to 10 at night. The pressure to perform is immense. 03:10
Teacher addresses students in auditorium Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS!Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS!Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS! 03:38
Simkin: The cram school is a Japanese institution. 04:01
Students in class at cram school There are more than 50,000 across the nation, and its estimated that sixty percent of students go to one, either during holidays, or during term, on top of their usual classes. Its a response to what is known as examination hell -- the seemingly never-ending cycle of tough tests that govern access to the best schools and universities. 04:07
Fukaya Fukaya: It was oppressive. I would get up in the morning, go to school, come home from school --then go to cram school after dinner. 04:31
Student in cram class I felt irritation and emptiness because I was not being rewarded despite all my hard work. 04:49
Young people on street Music 05:00
Nearly two thousand young people are committing suicide each year. In the last decade, the number of violent crimes committed by juveniles has doubled. Truancy has become endemic, as has a more dangerous and disturbing form of social withdrawal hikikomori. 05:24
View from train Music 05:41
Simkin: Its estimated one million Japanese children are modern day hermits, refusing to leave their rooms for years. 05:45
Shoko: Its very scary. I think were going to be in serious trouble in 20 years time. 06:02
Shoko They are running away from society. They dont want to be challenged. Theyre afraid to go somewhere that doesnt have a manual. 06:12
Shoko visits hikikomori brothers Simkin: Shoko Sugiura is a youth counsellor. Today, shes visiting two hikikomori brothers.Four years ago, the boys suddenly turned violent, forcing their sister and parents to flee the family home. The boys live in it now they rarely venture outside, and visitors are not welcome. Shokos assistant tries to communicate through an upstairs window.After half an hour of cajoling, Koichi Yamamoto utters a few mumbled words. 06-32
Koichi comes to window Shoko: Are you sick? Do you want me to take you to the hospital? What happened to your happiness? 07:08
Family video Simkin: One of the familys old home videos shows Koichi as a happy, healthy boy. He was also a straight-A student. Now, hes unrecognisable. 07:20
Shoko: Hes become skinny and pale because he never goes outside. Its a difficult problem. 07:34
Masae at home Simkin: The boys father has taken off; their mother and sister live in a tiny one-room apartment.Masae Yamamoto blames herself. She says she pushed her children too hard, and they started pushing back. 07:48
Masae Masae: I was hit here and here my whole body was hit, except my back. Then my younger son followed that lead, and became violent too. 08:04
Shoko confronts teenager girl Simkin: The scale of the problem unique to Japan, and Shoko has her hands full.She adopts a confrontational approach to getting the kids out of their rooms, but many Japanese parents do the opposite. Scared of the stigma attached to having a hikikomori child, they let the victims stay in their rooms, putting food under the door. 08:21
Kudo: The longest withdrawal case that Ive handled was a person who had withdrawn from society from age 19 to 47. 09:10
Kudo That is, hed been withdrawn for 27 or 28 years. 09:25
Kudo at halfway house with recluses Simkin: Sadatsugu Kudo runs a hikikomori half-way house in Tokyo.All these boys are recovering recluses.Kudo san blames a society dedicated to the economy. Children rarely see their workaholic fathers, and are put under enormous pressure to perform and conform by their mothers. 09:36
Kudo Kudo: In Japan, if you cannot have a normal life, you feel great shame. Because of that shame, you have to hide yourself from others and must stay at home. 10:01
Ryosuke in corridor Simkin: Thats what happened to 23 year old Ryosuke Fukaya.He studied ferociously cram school until eleven at night, then homework but still found himself sliding down the academic ladder.Frustrated and embarrassed, he hid from the world for six years. 10:19
Fukaya: I was defeated by pressure. Everyday, I was repeating the same thing, 10:37
Fukaya but I knew I might fail. Just because of a piece of paper -- a test -- all my efforts would be wasted. I felt I would get nowhere by repeating this worthless life. 10:46
Fukaya and boys in restaurant Simkin: Ryosuke and the other boys are being slowly reintroduced to society -- and society is slowly being introduced to them. 11:08
Kudo: When you come to a drinking place, the first thing you should do is order a drink. Beverages include water, sake, beer and a local sake called shochu.
Bus hijack file tape Simkin: Hikikomori is a huge problem, but received little attention until this.A 17-year-old victim burst back into society in brutal fashion -- hijacking a bus and stabbing a woman to death.In the last five years, more than five hundred teenagers have killed or attempted to kill --many of the crimes shocking in their savagery. 11:39
The nation is still haunted by the Kobe case, when a 14 year old chopped off another students head, and stuck it on the school gate revenge, he said, against the education system that had rendered him invisible. 12:03
Ogi OGI: The common thing about the students who commit atrocious crimes is that they had good academic ability and a good family environment. They were good kids who studied hard. 12:18
Excerpt from Battle Royalecourtesy of Toei Co Ltd 12:38
Simkin: The idea that good kids can suddenly turn bad has terrified Japan, prompting agonised soul searching and inspiring popular culture. 12:41
Super over Excerpt: It is the beginning of the new century -- one country collapsed. Adults who lost confidence were afraid of the children. Then a law called The Game was passed. Music 12:49
Excerpt continues Simkin: This is one of Japans most successful movies Battle Royale. 13:00
Movie: This country becomes very bad. I want you to kill each other Battle Royale!
Simkin: Its a bloody cross between Survivor and Lord of the Flies. School children are put on an island -- only one is allowed off. 13:17
The film reflects Japans preoccupation with and fear of a young generation out of control.OGI: There is a prominent high school that sends more students to Tokyo University than any other. One of its teachers conducted a survey, asking the students if they had ever wanted to murder someone. Sixty percent of the students said yes. 13:30
Ogi The survey also asked if they understood the feelings of a boy who had committed an atrocious murder, and nearly 70% of respondents said they understood the feelings of the young murderer. 13:57
Children exercising in quadrangle Simkin: The government has responded by introducing the most radical reforms in half a century.The aim is to loosen things up, to relieve the pressure. Saturday classes have been abolished; curricula slashed by thirty percent. Rote learning is out, creative thinking, in. Many parents are appalled. 14:20
Classroom Japans academic standards are extremely high. Its feared a generation is about to be dumbed down.Cram school enrolments are going through the roof, and more and more families are paying big money for even more intense forms of education. 14:52
Totsuka yacht school The Totsuka yacht school, near Nagoya, takes a very different tack to the mainstream. Here, the belief is that modern kids are soft --more pain and pressure are required.Totsuka: Stop! Stop! Stop! 15:11
Simkin: Bullying is encouraged.Totsuka: We generate unpleasantness. Unpleasantness is, in a sense, considered a sin in Japan these days. They say its not good 15:25
Totsuka and giving unpleasantness to children is not good -- but unpleasantness is a very important emotion. You become happy if you overcome unhappiness. 15:45
Bullying class Simkin: Children are hit for real regularly punched and kicked by the teachers.This boys been here for five months. 16:04
Boy BOY : They were shouting and hitting the boy on the head, because he wasnt doing what he was told. 16:16
Totsuka Totsuka: As Japan has become wealthy, extreme idleness has come about, and it is no longer considered a virtue to bear and endure. Its actually seen as a sin something you shouldnt have to bear. We shouldnt have to put up with this. You can say the same for education. 16:38
Young people on street Music 17:04
Simkin: As some long for the past, others fear for the future. 17:13
Japan so long accused of being incapable of change is undergoing a transformation, and the education system is struggling to catch up.
Girls in geisha outfits/coming of age event Today, these 20 year olds officially become adults. Theyre caught in conflicting currents --born during economic boom but coming of age in a world where jobs are disappearing, traditions fading. 1740
MC: Having the awareness of adults, I hope you realise your dreams and behave. 17:55
Young people on street Simkin: A disturbing number of young people are not behaving. 18:14
Conformity and competition, discipline and dedication built an industrial giant, but is the price of financial success a seemingly lost generation?
Credits: Reporter: Mark SimkinCamera: Jun Matsuzono, and Geoffrey LyeResearch: Yumiko Asada and Yayoi EguchiEditor: Stuart Miller and Simon BrynjolffssenProducer: Ian AltschwagerExcerpt from Battle Royalecourtesy of Toei Co Ltd
1840
Shots of schoolground Music 00:00
Bare chested children run into school ground Simkin: On a bitterly cold morning, the children at Tokyos Daini Hikari kindergarten come out to play. 00:26
At this Spartan school, the uniform is no uniform those who are ill are allowed to wear shirts -- the rest receive little sympathy, even on days like today, when its just a few degrees above zero.
The aim is to toughen the youngsters up physically and mentally. 00:56
Children play Principal: The aim is to toughen the body. When you feel the cold, your body shivers, your nose runs and your insides take the actions necessary to deal with the temperature. 01:08
Principal Thats why we exercise every day and carry out bare-chested education it helps make them healthy from the core of their being. 01:225
Music
Children at assembly Children: Good morning principal, good morning teachers. 01:38
Simkin: Survivors Few schools in Japan are as tough as this one, but the values it promotes are typical -- hard work, discipline, fierce competition. 01:48
Children race each other Traditionally, Japans education system has been a frantic race to the top. 02:03
Children in class For decades, the system worked brilliantly, churning out the corporate samurai who helped Japanese industry outpace the world. 02:14
But this much-vaunted system is coming apart, and more and more children are falling through the cracks. 02:26
Ogi: We are not facing a youth crisis so much as a crisis of Japanese society itself.
Ogi We no longer know how to bring up children Our society is gripped by a functional disorder. 02:49
Mountains of Nagano Music
Students arrive at cram school Simkin: For many people, the mountains of Nagano are a peaceful retreat from the pressures of Tokyo -- but not for these students. Theyve given up their holidays to attend live-in cram school -- studying from 8.30 in the morning to 10 at night. The pressure to perform is immense. 03:10
Teacher addresses students in auditorium Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS!Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS!Teacher: I will pass my exams! Students: I WILL PASS MY EXAMS! 03:38
Simkin: The cram school is a Japanese institution. 04:01
Students in class at cram school There are more than 50,000 across the nation, and its estimated that sixty percent of students go to one, either during holidays, or during term, on top of their usual classes. Its a response to what is known as examination hell -- the seemingly never-ending cycle of tough tests that govern access to the best schools and universities. 04:07
Fukaya Fukaya: It was oppressive. I would get up in the morning, go to school, come home from school --then go to cram school after dinner. 04:31
Student in cram class I felt irritation and emptiness because I was not being rewarded despite all my hard work. 04:49
Young people on street Music 05:00
Nearly two thousand young people are committing suicide each year. In the last decade, the number of violent crimes committed by juveniles has doubled. Truancy has become endemic, as has a more dangerous and disturbing form of social withdrawal hikikomori. 05:24
View from train Music 05:41
Simkin: Its estimated one million Japanese children are modern day hermits, refusing to leave their rooms for years. 05:45
Shoko: Its very scary. I think were going to be in serious trouble in 20 years time. 06:02
Shoko They are running away from society. They dont want to be challenged. Theyre afraid to go somewhere that doesnt have a manual. 06:12
Shoko visits hikikomori brothers Simkin: Shoko Sugiura is a youth counsellor. Today, shes visiting two hikikomori brothers.Four years ago, the boys suddenly turned violent, forcing their sister and parents to flee the family home. The boys live in it now they rarely venture outside, and visitors are not welcome. Shokos assistant tries to communicate through an upstairs window.After half an hour of cajoling, Koichi Yamamoto utters a few mumbled words. 06-32
Koichi comes to window Shoko: Are you sick? Do you want me to take you to the hospital? What happened to your happiness? 07:08
Family video Simkin: One of the familys old home videos shows Koichi as a happy, healthy boy. He was also a straight-A student. Now, hes unrecognisable. 07:20
Shoko: Hes become skinny and pale because he never goes outside. Its a difficult problem. 07:34
Masae at home Simkin: The boys father has taken off; their mother and sister live in a tiny one-room apartment.Masae Yamamoto blames herself. She says she pushed her children too hard, and they started pushing back. 07:48
Masae Masae: I was hit here and here my whole body was hit, except my back. Then my younger son followed that lead, and became violent too. 08:04
Shoko confronts teenager girl Simkin: The scale of the problem unique to Japan, and Shoko has her hands full.She adopts a confrontational approach to getting the kids out of their rooms, but many Japanese parents do the opposite. Scared of the stigma attached to having a hikikomori child, they let the victims stay in their rooms, putting food under the door. 08:21
Kudo: The longest withdrawal case that Ive handled was a person who had withdrawn from society from age 19 to 47. 09:10
Kudo That is, hed been withdrawn for 27 or 28 years. 09:25
Kudo at halfway house with recluses Simkin: Sadatsugu Kudo runs a hikikomori half-way house in Tokyo.All these boys are recovering recluses.Kudo san blames a society dedicated to the economy. Children rarely see their workaholic fathers, and are put under enormous pressure to perform and conform by their mothers. 09:36
Kudo Kudo: In Japan, if you cannot have a normal life, you feel great shame. Because of that shame, you have to hide yourself from others and must stay at home. 10:01
Ryosuke in corridor Simkin: Thats what happened to 23 year old Ryosuke Fukaya.He studied ferociously cram school until eleven at night, then homework but still found himself sliding down the academic ladder.Frustrated and embarrassed, he hid from the world for six years. 10:19
Fukaya: I was defeated by pressure. Everyday, I was repeating the same thing, 10:37
Fukaya but I knew I might fail. Just because of a piece of paper -- a test -- all my efforts would be wasted. I felt I would get nowhere by repeating this worthless life. 10:46
Fukaya and boys in restaurant Simkin: Ryosuke and the other boys are being slowly reintroduced to society -- and society is slowly being introduced to them. 11:08
Kudo: When you come to a drinking place, the first thing you should do is order a drink. Beverages include water, sake, beer and a local sake called shochu.
Bus hijack file tape Simkin: Hikikomori is a huge problem, but received little attention until this.A 17-year-old victim burst back into society in brutal fashion -- hijacking a bus and stabbing a woman to death.In the last five years, more than five hundred teenagers have killed or attempted to kill --many of the crimes shocking in their savagery. 11:39
The nation is still haunted by the Kobe case, when a 14 year old chopped off another students head, and stuck it on the school gate revenge, he said, against the education system that had rendered him invisible. 12:03
Ogi OGI: The common thing about the students who commit atrocious crimes is that they had good academic ability and a good family environment. They were good kids who studied hard. 12:18
Excerpt from Battle Royalecourtesy of Toei Co Ltd 12:38
Simkin: The idea that good kids can suddenly turn bad has terrified Japan, prompting agonised soul searching and inspiring popular culture. 12:41
Super over Excerpt: It is the beginning of the new century -- one country collapsed. Adults who lost confidence were afraid of the children. Then a law called The Game was passed. Music 12:49
Excerpt continues Simkin: This is one of Japans most successful movies Battle Royale. 13:00
Movie: This country becomes very bad. I want you to kill each other Battle Royale!
Simkin: Its a bloody cross between Survivor and Lord of the Flies. School children are put on an island -- only one is allowed off. 13:17
The film reflects Japans preoccupation with and fear of a young generation out of control.OGI: There is a prominent high school that sends more students to Tokyo University than any other. One of its teachers conducted a survey, asking the students if they had ever wanted to murder someone. Sixty percent of the students said yes. 13:30
Ogi The survey also asked if they understood the feelings of a boy who had committed an atrocious murder, and nearly 70% of respondents said they understood the feelings of the young murderer. 13:57
Children exercising in quadrangle Simkin: The government has responded by introducing the most radical reforms in half a century.The aim is to loosen things up, to relieve the pressure. Saturday classes have been abolished; curricula slashed by thirty percent. Rote learning is out, creative thinking, in. Many parents are appalled. 14:20
Classroom Japans academic standards are extremely high. Its feared a generation is about to be dumbed down.Cram school enrolments are going through the roof, and more and more families are paying big money for even more intense forms of education. 14:52
Totsuka yacht school The Totsuka yacht school, near Nagoya, takes a very different tack to the mainstream. Here, the belief is that modern kids are soft --more pain and pressure are required.Totsuka: Stop! Stop! Stop! 15:11
Simkin: Bullying is encouraged.Totsuka: We generate unpleasantness. Unpleasantness is, in a sense, considered a sin in Japan these days. They say its not good 15:25
Totsuka and giving unpleasantness to children is not good -- but unpleasantness is a very important emotion. You become happy if you overcome unhappiness. 15:45
Bullying class Simkin: Children are hit for real regularly punched and kicked by the teachers.This boys been here for five months. 16:04
Boy BOY : They were shouting and hitting the boy on the head, because he wasnt doing what he was told. 16:16
Totsuka Totsuka: As Japan has become wealthy, extreme idleness has come about, and it is no longer considered a virtue to bear and endure. Its actually seen as a sin something you shouldnt have to bear. We shouldnt have to put up with this. You can say the same for education. 16:38
Young people on street Music 17:04
Simkin: As some long for the past, others fear for the future. 17:13
Japan so long accused of being incapable of change is undergoing a transformation, and the education system is struggling to catch up.
Girls in geisha outfits/coming of age event Today, these 20 year olds officially become adults. Theyre caught in conflicting currents --born during economic boom but coming of age in a world where jobs are disappearing, traditions fading. 1740
MC: Having the awareness of adults, I hope you realise your dreams and behave. 17:55
Young people on street Simkin: A disturbing number of young people are not behaving. 18:14
Conformity and competition, discipline and dedication built an industrial giant, but is the price of financial success a seemingly lost generation?
Credits: Reporter: Mark SimkinCamera: Jun Matsuzono, and Geoffrey LyeResearch: Yumiko Asada and Yayoi EguchiEditor: Stuart Miller and Simon BrynjolffssenProducer: Ian AltschwagerExcerpt from Battle Royalecourtesy of Toei Co Ltd