22.5% Japanese Are Unhappy, Says Survey

A record per centage of Japanese were unhappy with their lives last year, mainly because of mounting worries about job security and retirement, a government survey showed yesterday.

The survey, conducted every few years, showed that 22.5 per cent of respondents were unhappy with their way of life last year, the highest since the survey was first conducted in 1978. At that time malcontents made up 15.6 per cent of the total.

The per centage satisfied with their lives in 1996 was 47.5 per cent, the lowest ever and down from 56.7 per cent in 1978.

People in their thirties have the gloomiest outlook, said a government official.

The survey showed that only 14.4 per cent of men in their thirties held an optimistic view about their retirement.

Fears that the public pension system may not be able to take care of retirement bills have grown in Japans rapidly ageing society. Government forecasts indicate that one in four Japanese will be 65 or over by the year 2015.

The feeling of security traditionally offered by Japans system of lifetime employment is also beginning to erode, the survey showed. Although 73.3 per cent of workers in 1982 said they believed their companies would guarantee their jobs despite a fall in earnings, only 56.7 per cent thought so in the 1996 survey.