Coming-of-Age Day: Young People Should Take Time to Enjoy Inefficient Detours

Editorial

17:15 JST, January 13, 2025

What is important in an era of rapid change with great emphasis on efficiency? Hopefully, today will be a day for the young generation, who will support Japan in the future, to ponder this question.

Today is Coming-of-Age Day. A total of 1.09 million people — born in 2006 and currently 18 years old — became new adults.

With many 18-year-olds preparing to take university entrance exams, most local governments have decided to hold their Coming-of-Age ceremonies for 20-year-olds. The city governments of Iga, Mie Prefecture, and Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, held ceremonies for 18-year-olds, but have said they will return to having ceremonies for 20-year-olds after receiving requests from residents and others.

For this reason, some 18-year-olds may find it difficult to feel that they have joined the ranks of adulthood. However, they can now sign various contracts and obtain credit cards.

But this also means that they need to be alert to the increased risk of getting into trouble, such as incurring multiple debts.

“Dark part-time jobs,” in which young people are lured into crimes with promises of high remuneration, have become rampant. There is no such thing as easy money. It may seem like a roundabout way, but making steady efforts should lead to a better future.

The concept of “time performance,” which values effectiveness for the time spent, is pervasive recently, particularly among young people, and the term’s abbreviation “taipa” gaining ground.

The development of generative artificial intelligence that instantly analyzes information is said to have spurred a trend toward greater emphasis on efficiency. A paperback about young people who watch movies at double the speed has also been much talked about.

Such behavior by young people can be explained as a way to get by in an information-overloaded society because they do not want to be left behind in their conversations with friends, and as their tendency to excessively dislike spending too much time on things.

The idea of wanting to use time efficiently should not by itself be denied. In some respects, it is probably unavoidable for more young people to take steps to efficiently achieve their goals in a society in which Japan’s national strength is declining and they find it hard to have hope.

However, heavily leaning toward a time-efficient approach could discourage people from taking on challenges, as taking detours is considered unnecessary and simply failure.

In the history of science and industry, innovative discoveries and inventions often come about in the course of countless failures and seemingly futile detours. In educational settings, some schools have adopted so-called close reading, which encourages students to read a single book over a long period of time, to improve reading comprehension.

Today’s young generation is said to be earnest in their nature and keen about volunteer work. While making the most of these virtues, it would be good for them to have the grit to plunge into unknown worlds and enough leeway in their minds to enjoy the detours they take.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 13, 2025)