twenty

::: "20 20 20: superboomers in cool japan" is an indepth study of japanese twenty-year-olds conducted by CLSA asia-pacific markets (www.clsa.com)... the idea behind the study: to ask 20 twenty-year-olds about their next 20 years...

...published in march 2005, the study reveals interesting profiles of japanese college students...drawing upon these profiles and other significant interview data, the 20-20-20 study concludes that this age group -- so volatile, yet so vital for the nation's future -- is dominated by two themes...

• first, with an average monthly disposable income of 30,000-60,000 yen, japanese twenty-year-olds have, as the report notes, the "fattest 20-year-old wallets in history"...filled with cash from part-time jobs and money from their parents, typical japanese youth have significant discretionary income...striving to be "cool," they shell out lots of cash to feed the need to be very fashion-conscious and trendy...

• second, and relatedly, most of the study's interviewees expressed the desire to find deeper fulfilment that goes beyond consumption...this desire for fulfilment points to the growing sense of fear, disappointment, and depression, themes that are not only evident in this generation, but increasing in scale and severity (e.g., some reports say that there are hundreds of thousands of youth -- given the acronym "NEET" (No Education Employment or Training) -- who are incapacitated by idleness, isolation, and/or illness and often secluded and silenced for years by their families)...

...around our neighborhood: gakuentoshi (literally "garden of learning"), we see twenty-year-olds everywhere...walking in the morning to university classes...hanging out in the afternoon in snack shops...taking the late-night subway home...we read reports like this and we pray (ephesians 6:18)...we anticipate opportunities to extend to anyone the coolest news of all, the good news of jesus (1 peter 3.15)...

...with the hope that...

...this will be a psalm 24:6 generation...

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