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What do Japanese kids want to be when they grow up? For 30% of boys, YouTubers, survey says

8 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

There are a lot of jobs out there in the world, but a recent survey by insurance provider Sony Life shows that there are a few that sound especially good to kids in Japan. The company recently asked 200 junior high students and 800 high school students (split evenly between boys and girls) about what kind of job they want when they grow up, letting each student pick three, so let’s take a look at the top results.

● Junior high boys

  1. YouTuber/Online video creator (30 percent of respondents)
  2. Pro e-sports player (23 percent)
  3. Video game creator (19 percent)
  4. IT engineer/Programmer (16 percent)
  5. Company president/Entrepreneur (14 percent)

Among junior high boys, YouTuber was by far the most popular choice, nearly doubling its votes since Sony Life’s 2017 survey, in which only 17 percent of junior high boys made it one of their picks. Also notable it that the relative positions of e-sports player and game creator have switched. In 2017 20 percent of the boys said they wanted to make games (ranking second overall) while only 16 percent wanted to get paid to play them. Pro e-sports player also leapfrogged professional athlete, which fell from fourth place in 2017 to a tie for sixth in 2019. Meanwhile, 2017’s top choice, IT engineer/programmer, lost eight percentage points and tumbled down three spots.

● Junior high girls

  1. Singer/Actress/Voice actress/Performer (18 percent)
  2. Manga artist/Illustrator/Animator/Drawing artist (16 percent)
  3. Nurse (14 percent)

4 (tie). Civil servant (12 percent)

4 (tie). Nurse (12 percent)

Like the boys, junior high girls wanted a place in the spotlight, but aren’t necessarily drawn to the idea of self-produced online content. All three top spots, as well as fourth-place civil servant, held their positions from 2017, while nurse slid into the overall top five, trailing two percent behind doctor. YouTuber also shows up on the junior high girls’ list, but only in seventh place with 10 percent, up from 10th /6 percent two years ago.

● High school boys

  1. IT engineer/Programmer (20.8 percent)
  2. Company president/Entrepreneur (16.9 percent)
  3. YouTuber/Online video creator (12.8)
  4. Video game creator (12.3 percent)
  5. Manufacturing engineer (11.3 percent)

High school boys showed a more pragmatic mindset than their younger counterparts, with ever-employable IT professional topping their list. Even among the older guys, though, YouTuber shot up in popularity since 2017, when it ranked 10th with just 6.8 percent. Reflecting the growing allure of digital competition and make-a-living-off-it prize/sponsorship money, professional e-sports player landed at seventh place with 9.3 percent among high school boys, while professional athlete, which ranked ninth in 2017, dropped out of the top 10 entirely.

● High school girls

  1. Civil servant (15 percent)
  2. Nurse (11 percent)
  3. Singer/Actress/Voice actress/Performer (8.8 percent)
  4. Counselor/Clinical psychologist (8.5 percent)
  5. Office worker (8 percent)

Overall, the high school girls’ list showed the most variety of responses, though all of the philanthropic top three remain unchanged from 2017, with respected, stable civil service work remaining the favorite. Counsellor rose from seventh to fourth place despite an identical 8.5 percent of responses in both 2019 and 2017, and was joined in the top five by previously 10th place office worker, with teacher and artist being shouldered out of the top-five group. YouTuber doesn’t show up in either year’s high school girl top 10.

Looking at by far the two biggest vote-getters, YouTuber and professional e-sports player for junior high school boys, some may be tempted to shake their fists about how all these darn kids these days want to do is watch videos on the internet, play video games, and make/watch videos of people playing video games to watch on the internet. It’s important to remember, though, that each of the kids was allowed to pick three jobs for their answer, so the strong showings for YouTuber and professional gamer don’t necessarily meant that all of those kids are mentally locked into those recently born career paths, just that they sound pretty appealing to a large number of boys, which isn’t surprising when you remember that they’re at an age where they’ve only experienced being on the fun, media-consumer end of watching online videos and gaming competitions, so why not work in that field?

Source: Sony Life via IT Media

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- What do Japanese kids want to be when they grow up? Businesspeople

-- Survey reveals that Japanese women’s ideal husband is surprisingly ordinary

-- “Scholar” tops list of what Japanese boys want to be when they grow up, “restauranteur” for girls

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

8 Comments
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What a poorly written article. I spotted about 3 mistakes (based on data they quoted) in the first 3 paragraphs.

I guess journalism (or blogger) wasn’t on the list..

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Humanity is doomed.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Transgenders .... perhaps they thrive in psychology?

Or perhaps they generally find interest in the same things as the gender they have transitioned to generally finds interest. You know, seeing as they identify with/as that gender.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

If high education were free I wonder how many would choose to be a scientist or a doctor.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Boys are mainly interested in working with screens.

No more human interaction.

That's sad.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It's OK. They will change then minds once they grow up, and become engineers.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

They'll be okay if they join one of those big companies or they will get constantly demonetized like everyone else on YouTube.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Males are interested in things, i.e. almost all engineers are men.

Females are interested in people, i.e. the vast majority of nurses are women.

Transgenders .... perhaps they thrive in psychology?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

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