The emergence of people who do not care about keeping up with the middle class was described in a best-selling book by marketing expert Atsushi Miura entitled "Low Society."
In the 1960s, television sets were symbols of middle-class living , but now "low society" people own - and often indulge in - gadgets such as DVD players and personal computers , Miura says in the book published last September.
The low society is not absolutely poor in terms of material; possession. So what is lacking in them ? It is their will, he says.
They are not eager to communicate with others, work, learn or spend money on luxury goods. “In short, they have low motivation for life,” he says.
“ You try to climb a mountain because you expect there must be a something wonderful at its peak. It is natural that nobody bothers to climb to the top…… if you are already 70 percent high up and find plenty of things there.”
Many in the new “low society” are men in their early 30s who grew up after Japan accomplished its post-war miracle. They have not seen poverty or feared slipping from the middle class.
They prefer to “be myself,” instead of the group identity which is deeply rooted in East Asia, Miura says.
The low society is a major factor in Japan's trend of marrying late and having fewer children,which has led to a decline in the population that has frightened economic policy makers.
Miura thinks that "slackers" also have cause for worry -- because their lifestyle is self-defeating.
"If the whole society is on an uptrend, you will be carried higher automatically.When the society stops rising,however,only the people who are willing to go higher will rise while others will go down."he says.
"What is unique to Japan is those people called 'low society' are quite satisfied with their lives,"says Ryuichiro Matsubara ,an economics professor at the University of Tokyo.
"This is a very rare phenomenon among advanced countries. Here in Japan you don't see riots like those seen recently in France.""I think this is because Japan has developed a very peculiar consumption society since the late 1970s,"
Psychiatrist Hideki Wada says,"They don't take the matter seriously,believeing they would not be homeless in today's Japan."On the other hand, they just have given up on going higher."
Sunday , May 21 , 2006 by China Post
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