Japan's Lost Generation, the World's Lost Generation and an Epoch of Social Withdrawal: A Note

Abstract

This note considers the likely connections between Japan's "lost decade" (now "lost decades") and highly publicized evidences of increasing nonconformity as manifest in social withdrawal. It also considers the likelihood that as a similar economic picture emerges elsewhere in the advanced industrial nations (e.g. the U.S.), and more generally globally (e.g. China), the same tendency has also become more evident in other countries' social life (e.g. "American hikikomori," China's "lying flat" movement).

Keywords: Japan's Lost Decades, World Economy, Great Recession, "Hikikomori," Social Withdrawal, Social Conformity