Japan ranks lowest in quality of life satisfaction among 30 countries: happiness survey
Ideas:
Having traveled to Japan over the past 25 years it seems many Japanese people always look like they are unhappy or not enjoying their lives. Yes, this is just an observation, but to be fair it might just be a big city phenomenon where people don't smile much and just go about their business. We might see the same thing in London, Paris, or New York.
At the same time, most Japanese people might be more stoic and don't show their feelings as much as other societies.
Different cultures and different societies have different definitions of happiness and maybe happiness Japan is not the same as happiness in the Netherlands.
So it's not easy to compare apples and oranges for lack of a better example as different societies have different values for happiness.
For example some societies might prioritize work as the most important variable while other societies might prioritize their free time as more valuable.
Some might prioritize how much money they make as being a variable for happiness while some societies might have money farther down their list.
Its well known that the Northern European countries usually have the highest level of happiness while countries like China, South Korea and Japan usually have the lowest levels of happiness.
A lot has happened since 2011 when maybe more Japanese felt more happy, but in the past 15 years, Japanese society and the Japanese economy has gone through some significant changes.
For example the Japanese economy has been stuck in a stagnation mode for a very long time with little or no economic growth.
Company wages for a very long time were stuck too with no real wage increases until a year or two ago.
And then there was the pandemic and then inflation which has kept Japanese households from maybe being able to do what they want or even need to do.
India is an up and coming economy that moving quickly up the ladder and might pass Japan this year or next as the 4th largest economy in the world.
The Netherlands traditionally has always been a happy country like the Northern European countries as they all have very good social systems that take care of their populations.
Both Hungary and Turkey might be considered quasi-dictatorships so their populations might not be too happy.
South Korea has always been unhappy for many reasons. It's a very competitive country and has one of the highest suicide rates in the world due to the fact people are always comparing themselves to each other related to school grades, jobs, income, looks and so on.They basically are never happy and are always striving to keep up the with Kims, Parks or Lees.
Yes, the past 15 years have not been a good time for Japan, as inflation has been on-going there for a very long time which means prices just keep going up and up.
For the 60's, 70's, and 80's Japan might have been the envy of the world with it strong economic growth but ever since the asset bubble bust in 1989, the Japanese economy has been stagnant with very little growth which might mean less good jobs and less wage increases for many workers.
In Japan work is an important variable and if work has begum less important or less valuable to many in Japanese society, its not surprise they are not feeling good about their work which used the be one of the most important variables in society.
Family might be the main variable that might be keeping Japanese society from being completely unhappy, as some might say being able to form relationships at work or school is very difficult these days.
It's very sad that Japan has been reduced to only 13 percent feeling a level of satisfaction with life.
It's quite possible that Japan has adopted the same variables that South Korea has of status of job, level of income, who your friends are, the status of the university you went to, your looks, and comparing yourself against everyone else to determine your level of happiness.
South Korea has been at this level for many years and now maybe Japan has succumbed to the same variables for happiness has South Korea has.
Again, unfortunately, South Korea has one of the highest, if not the highest suicide rates, in the world due to many of these variables.
If a country's citizens don't have any hope they will not have any kind of optimism for the future. It's quite possible Japan needs a complete paradigm shift in how it approaches things such as work and work/life experiences.
For a long time, work was the central variable for happiness in Japan, but maybe over time that variable has been eroded to where work is meaningless to many now in Japan.
For the past 30 plus years maybe a negative mindset has set in and many Japanese don't see any way to improve their lives other than just go to work come home sleep and go back to work to a job they might not like much.
There is no easy answer to fix the situation as there might be many reasons why Japanese society has become very negative compared to other countries.
When a society places its happiness based on one or two variables such income or type of work they do, they can easily become unhappy or disenchanted with life if they don't have any other variables to fall back on.
This maybe is what has happened to Japan, as, again, work or the job , or level of income, has been the major variable in Japanese society and they haven't learned how to enjoy other types of variables in their lives.
Have a nice day!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.