New adults consider what is time
With today being Japan’s Coming of Age Day – 成人の日, seijin no hi – Seiko (the watch people, as a watch is a popular present for these new adults from their parents) published a survey of soon-to-be adults to see what their views were regarding time. They questioned 517 people, 258 male, 259 female, in the middle of November last year. The demographics were almost exclusively students, numbering 89.6% of the total, with 3.5% part-timers or other temporary staff, just 1.8% in full-time employment, 0.4% self-employed, and 1.0% full-time housewives.
On the TV today, there was the usual coverage of the various Coming of Age Ceremonies, but the one I always find the strangest is the new tradition of spending it at Tokyo Disneyland, where it seems people are not celebrating their last chance at being a child by dancing with Mickey and Minnie, but are instead just continuing their relationship with Disney. Interviews with the participants afterwards always shows a child-like wonder at having touched Mickey and Minnie, the sort of reaction I would associate with a ten-year-old, not a twenty-year-old!
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