Coming-of-Age Day

"Gosh, I'm so unlucky. What a time to become an adult!" It is Coming-of-Age Day. Perhaps many of you who are celebrating this day are silently muttering something like this. We are indeed in the midst of a tsunami-like economic crisis. The economy is getting worse. So-and-so's company collapsed. So-and-so is left out in the cold because company A reneged on its promise to hire him. The more you hear horror stories like these from your friends and superiors, the more anxious you are about your own future.

People attending coming-of-age ceremonies today were born when the era changed from Showa to Heisei. By the time they were old enough to be aware of the greater world around them, the asset-inflated bubble economy had burst. They have really never experienced straightforward economic growth.

The young entrepreneurs who held court in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills and the highfliers in the information-technology sector were once treated like celebrities, but the party only lasted a short time.

What lies ahead is an aging society with fewer children.

The small, young working population must support the many elderly people. The pension you receive in your old age will not be as much as what the old people get now. Yet, you are expected to bear the burden of the country's debt.

If you look outside the nation, you see how the tides of globalization created numerous gaps around the world: a power gap between the strong and the weak, and an income gap between the rich and the poor. And the wasteful use of resources and energy that caused global warming.

From that perspective, you might say your generation is unlucky.

But you would be wasting your youth if you just whine and feel sorry for yourself.

The world may be a confused, complex place, but you should not run away and hide. Instead, you must face it head on.

It is the young people who can change the world.

Obviously, the young have no firsthand knowledge of the past and little experience. That is precisely why they can come up with new ideas, unhindered by conventions of the past. New perspectives can sometimes be the key to unexpected solutions.

It would be a sad thing indeed if grown-ups cannot find it in themselves to appreciate the values of the young and their way of doing things.

With a Lower House election expected this year, we have a good opportunity. An election could provide the impetus to change the world.

Especially this time around, the landscape of Japanese politics might be drastically transformed.

It is said that there is strength in numbers. But as a group, young people are small in numbers. Their opinions do not readily make it onto center stage.

On top of that, the politicians in this country tend to court only older citizens. This is because older voters can be expected to actually go to the polling booths.

If you remain on the sidelines, your problems and concerns will be left behind and ignored.

These are difficult times to live in, and that is all the more reason to speak out. You must not remain silent.

Not for nothing, you've become an adult legally. Why don't you give it a try and see what it's like at a polling booth. Build up the young people's votes, one by one.

With the ship heading into high seas, it needs young rowers.