Shinjinrui: who are they and why did they become who they are? Japanese in their 20s and early 20s differ so much from preceding generations that they are called -and call themselves -Shinjinrui, or "the new race". The term characterizes the children who have grown up in the Japan of the 1970s and 1980s, in an affluent, wealthy, powerful, influential, arrogant Japan. This new generation wishes to enjoy the fruits of affluence, having grown up after the era of post-war reconstruction and sacrifice. The term was coined during 1985 when the Asahi Journal ran a series of interviews with young Japanese. "Shinjinrui no Kishutachi -standard bearers of the new breed" was the title of the series by Tetsuya. It was a double pun on shinjin-rui (new faces) and shin-jinrui (new human race) -hence the term "new breed".Members of the new breed are actually different from their predecessors. Between 1965 and 1985, the average height for Japanese men increased over 7 centimetres (almost 3 inches) and the average weight increased by 5 kilograms (11 pounds), while the average height for Japanese women increased almost 6 centimetres (2 1 ⁄ 2 inches) but the average weight by only 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds). They spent their infancy during Japan's high growth era with good nutritious food, better than the previous generation, but fast food products during that same time frame gained popularity and impacted on their health. Instead of exercising during the day, they usually spent their time studying and, as a result, most have lost the muscle tone that previous generations had.Roughly 30 per cent of Japan's 120 million people qualify for Shinjinrui status, trained for and expecting high level jobs. Japan ranks second only to the USA among the leading industrial powers in its percentage of adults with college degrees (Kotkin and Kishimoto, 1988). Politically in present day Japan, not only do most younger Japanese show no leftist leanings, they also show absolutely no interest in politics at all. They are called Shirake Sedai, the "reactionless" generation (Woronoff, 1981).Many of the reasons that created the Shinjinrui were formed from the social distortions that the frenetic post-war economic boom imposed on the Japanese family, particularly the single-minded work orientation among Japanese men. For all practical purposes deserted by their husbands, Japanese mothers, who
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