A higher number of young people in Japan are living with low expectations for themselves and their country when compared with their peers in five other nations, a new survey finds.?

The Nippon Foundation Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds?¡ª which surveyed 1,000 people between the ages of 17 and 19 in Japan, the U.S., China, South Korea, the U.K. and India?¡ª found that only around 16% of Japanese respondents said that they believed that the future of their country would improve.?

This was the lowest rate among the participating countries, with India and China seeing the highest percentage of people believing that to be the case, at around 62% and 55% respectively. South Korea (23.5%), the U.S. (30.8%) and the U.K. (34%) all ranked above Japan.?

A similar sense of pessimism was seen in how youths in Japan viewed their own future, with only around 62% of respondents saying that they had a dream for their future, the lowest among all participating countries. This is more than 20 points lower than counterparts in India ¡ª the highest ranked ¡ª of whom approximately 86% said that to be the case.

This stood true across the board for similar questions, with the lowest percentage of Japanese youths agreeing with statements such as ¡°I have something I can be absorbed in, such as study, work, hobbies, etc.¡± and ¡°I am needed by others.¡±

Such attitudes have bled into how young people in Japan approach education and jobs. When asked what they prioritized the most as reasons for studying in school, only around 2% of respondents in the other five countries answered to not have anything in particular; Japan was an outlier in that nearly 20% chose the same answer.?

The same trend was seen for questions that asked what qualities of a job were considered important when choosing one and what their desired occupations were; a significantly higher proportion of Japanese respondents answered ¡°none in particular.¡±

Compared with the other countries, more people in Japan also thought that things such as their nationality, gender, sexual orientation and disability did limit how much they could succeed.?

Japan also had the lowest number of people who considered it desirable to get married and have children, at around 59%, followed by China and South Korea ranking just above that, at around 62% and 64%, respectively. The highest rate was seen in the U.K., at approximately 73%.

In the three East Asian countries, a declining population and an aging society were raised by respondents in the survey as being the most pressing issues that their respective countries face.??