Chaos prevailed at some of the coming-of-age ceremonies held across the nation on Jan. 8. Youngsters who had joined the ranks of adults behaved like rogues, swilling sake from king-size bottles, throwing firecrackers at a mayor, or shouting "go home" to a governor. These and other acts of gross incivility, reported vividly in newspapers and on television, shocked many people.
The youths' utter disregard for social etiquette is appalling indeed. The question is why they behaved the way they did. Adults are partly responsible. It is not just youngsters who ignore etiquette. It seems that adults' sense of ethics has also become paralyzed.
In my view, the reason for this lies in the speculative binge of the high-flying late 1980s, the period of the "bubble economy." In 1987, the year when the bubble began to form, Japan eclipsed the United States in per capita GDP and become the world's richest nation. The Japanese had finally achieved their long-cherished goal of catching up with America and other economic powers. The nation was engulfed by a sense of fulfillment.