Educational Media Reviews Online

This video is a documentary produced for Danish television. It seems to take its title from the perspective of one Professor Yamada, who populates the film's early sequences with dire pronouncements about the lack of concern for the future among Japan's young generation. The film moderates its tone and expands its subject as it progresses, though it remains a curious amalgam of inflammatory journalism, misogyny, and serious attempts at socio-cultural and economic analysis. In the end, however, these attempts remain amateur. The real issues facing Japanese society are overly simplified. They are given little historical context, nor are comparisons made to other industrialized nations.

At issue is Japan's aging demographic profile and the relation that it has to the decade-long, ongoing, economic crisis. The film's "Professor Yamada," (neither his given name nor his credentials are cited) proclaims that the young are not feeling the crisis because their parents have coddled them. No longer the poorest and least paid of workers, according to Yamada, they are now the "wealthiest,” but Yamada fails to explain this phenomena. A Deutsche Bank analyst concurs, saying that young Japanese are "mad about nonsense," with no thought about the future.

The film jumps from these pronouncements to the assertion that Japanese women are enjoying unprecedented freedoms as they push their way into the workplace. At the same time, tradition-bound Japanese companies have little room for new ideas in general, or for professional women, especially mothers, despite the obvious need for economic reforms. Having gained some social and economic independence, the film says, young women are unwilling to leave that behind for the expectations that they leave the working world when they marry. Though critiqued as hedonist and shallow "parasite singles," the young working women interviewed in the film—by the standards of American capitalism—offer the greatest hope for economic change in Japan. They have significant disposable income, a cosmopolitan attitude, and a willingness to spend money. Instead, according to the film's commentators, they are said to be threatening the future of Japanese society by refusing to marry. No attention is paid to the roots of Japan’s current economic malaise, or to the economic forces that keep young people living with their parents. Also notable is the absence of young men (other than the documentary makers and their interviewees) from the film.

The Japanese Nightmare raises a number of social, economic, demographic, and cultural issues and could provide the basis for interesting classroom discussions of issues facing Japan and other industrialized countries. Its lack of coherence and its poor contextualization of these issues make it a problematic choice, however. It can be recommended only with serious caveats—a film with better academic credentials is much to be preferred.

Given the jumpy point of view, one wonders if this film, adapted from a production for DR TV, lost something in the translation. The film’s technical qualities are quite acceptable. Narration is in Danish, with interviews in English and Japanese. English subtitles are included for the Danish and Japanese segments. Sound and picture quality are good.