The Vanishing Family Bond: Japan’s Next Generation in Crisis

KAZI ABUL MONSUR, JOURNALIST##
Japan has advanced greatly in education and technological development, ranking high globally. Many say that while we live in 2024, Japan is using its technological advancements to live in what feels like 2050. Known for cleanliness and humanitarian efforts, Japan has earned respect worldwide. However, despite media portrayals, the nation’s social, family, moral, and human values are being questioned due to the indifference of the new generation.

Despite stories on social media about Japanese innovations like space elevators and Mars missions, issues like social decay, lack of religion, and declining family ties among Japan’s younger generation have drawn global attention. Japan may excel in technological innovation, yet it also records a tragic number of suicides yearly. In 2023, for instance, over 21,000 people reportedly took their own lives.

South Korea and Japan have some of the highest suicide rates globally due to social inequality, despair, and extreme work pressure. In Japan, over 500 students, some as young as 16 or younger, committed suicide last year due to academic pressure, discrimination, or mental harassment from seniors—a shocking statistic for a well-educated, technologically advanced nation.

Japanese news agencies report that 21,837 citizens committed suicide in 2023—a 1.5% increase from the previous year. Economic and employment issues are cited as major reasons. Japan’s 2024 white paper on suicide prevention mentions that in 2023, 513 students and children died by suicide due to study pressure and mental abuse in schools.

Additionally, by August 2024, nearly 40,000 elderly people had died alone at home, their deaths discovered only months later by locals or the police. Despite family members living in big cities, they rarely check on elderly relatives in rural or suburban areas. This reveals a stark reality of Japan’s social and family dynamics.

Japan’s younger generation is reportedly introducing unusual marriage trends, such as separation marriages, weekly marriages, or friendship marriages. In separation marriages, spouses spend the week individually but reserve one special day to spend together. They have no family or social obligations, and each partner refrains from interfering in the other’s personal matters. Many are also uninterested in having or raising children. This peculiar, society-detached behavior is leading to a drastic population decline in Japan.

Furthermore, from 1937 to 1945, during WWII, Japan engaged in a violent campaign across the Asia-Pacific, killing approximately 25 million innocent people and committing atrocities in regions like Vietnam, the Philippines, Burma, South Korea, and vast parts of China, leaving a tragic legacy.##