Question three

What types of activities might be meaningful to teenagers in this culture and why?


It is often heard that Japanese teenagers are often overburdened with preparatory work for entrance examinations to high schools and universities. However it is to be pointed out that this is only true for a third of this group. The rest have no great ambitions to go into higher education and hence participate more in youth culture. There is a strong tendency for boys and girls to consume music both actively and passively.
The expressive creativity of girls often finds outlet in drawing comics or writing diaries and literature. Printed anime (cartoons) called Manga are hugely popular amongst children and teenagers. Manga means “light-hearted pictures.”
Group sports like basketball and volleyball for both sexes and soccer and baseball for boys are very popular. Almost all Japanese teenagers play some sport after school.
Young women also tend to acquire aesthetic skills by learning flower arrangement, tea ceremony, calligraphy, or a Japanese musical instrument, preferably the Kato. This ‘bridal training’ however, is becoming less popular amongst the young.
Japanese teenagers can be found hanging out with friends, shopping, eating fast food and listening to their MP3 players. Cellphones are also very popular in Japan with more than 3/4 of all teenagers having their own phone. Most of all, Japanese teenagers enjoy seeing and being seen by their peers. Japanese music crazes usually imitate Western styles of punk rock and heavy metal. Japanese tend to follow fads with even more passion than teens of other countries. Karaoke is one form of expressing their musical desires.
Some people say that the popularity of brightly coloured punk rock hairstyles is an example of the Japanese teens wish to stand against the conformity that makes up the culture of the country. Some Japanese teens enjoy cosplay or ‘dressing up as anime, gothic or Lolita (young girl) characters. Japanese tend to take trend-following quite seriously.