Japanese Teens Give Most Negative Answers in Six-Country Survey

Young People’s Views

In a recent survey of 1,000 teenagers aged from 17 to 19 in each of six countries—Japan, the United States, Britain, China, South Korea, and India—the Nippon Foundation asked whether they held particular ambitions for the future. A total of 86.3% of respondents from India, 83.1% from Britain, and 80.2% from the United States answered either “yes” or “to some extent.” However, only 62.4% of respondents from Japan chose one of these answers.

Fewer than 60% of Japanese agreed they “have a personality that people appreciate” and “feel needed by others,” the lowest response levels by far among all the countries surveyed. There was also a relatively low sentiment among Japanese respondents that they wanted to be useful to their country or society.

Japanese teenagers were less likely in general to want to keep studying with an eye on the future than those in other countries. Perhaps because of low self-esteem, they did not have as much confidence that they could overcome difficulties.

What do these teenagers think about their country’s future? In India and China, more than half think things will improve. While the percentages have dropped since the 2024 survey, people in these countries are more confident than those in others in the survey about life getting better.

Meanwhile, just 15.6% of Japanese teenagers said things would improve, which was by far the lowest percentage. At the same time, the country also had the highest percentage of those who said they did not know, at 34.2%.

The survey, conducted online on February 4–24, 2026, was aimed at 1,000 young people aged 17 to 19 in each country.

Data Sources

• Six-country survey of teenagers about their country/society (Japanese) from the Nippon Foundation.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)