Societal Factors Impacting on Images of the Future of Youth in Japan*

One of the fundamental assumptions of futures studies is that the future is not out there to be discovered or unfolded but can be created by people's intentions and actions. While intentions and actions of those who are currently leading the society are definitely significant, equally important are those of young generations who will create the much longer part of the future. There have been many studies about images of the future that young people hold and their attitudes towards the future. Referring to a few studies in Australia, Eckersley shows that young people feel powerless about what will happen in the future and they tend to wait for events happening. They are concerned about the increasing uncertainty that technology will bring about. They are aware that technology is not neutral. Their images of the future are particularly affected by broad negative changes taking place at present and by adults' values underlying those changes. As one way to help young people overcome their pessimistic views about the future, Gidley reports a case in Australia in which Steiner education helps students enhance their capacities to imagine better futures and to face the future in a more positive way. In the United Kingdom, Hicks surveyed common features of images of the future of young people. He assesses the impact of a futures workshop on the feeling of despair of those people, and argues for the importance of guiding images of the future for young people. Hicks and Holden compare and contrast images of the future of adults, of young people, of males and of Abstract