Gypsy is right - you first need to look at Generation Y before thinking too heavily about Gen X/Gen XX.
My experience in Japan seemed to be that most men in their 50s (ie the fathers of the Gen X'ers) were workaholic alcoholics. They work long hours and then got drunk every day on the train home each evening. Overall the population seemed to be constantly exhausted, sleeping in restaurants, cafes and standing on trains.
It's easy to see why Japanese guys probably don't want to buy in to the whole working lifestyle that they can see has brought their parents no joy. Perhaps life is more about deriving more frequent happiness from a range of simple pleasures (clothes, cosmetics etc) than investing in the bigger things in life which aren't guarenteed to bring happiness - marriage, a career etc.
Gypsy is right - you first need to look at Generation Y before thinking too heavily about Gen X/Gen XX.
My experience in Japan seemed to be that most men in their 50s (ie the fathers of the Gen X'ers) were workaholic alcoholics. They work long hours and then got drunk every day on the train home each evening. Overall the population seemed to be constantly exhausted, sleeping in restaurants, cafes and standing on trains.
It's easy to see why Japanese guys probably don't want to buy in to the whole working lifestyle that they can see has brought their parents no joy. Perhaps life is more about deriving more frequent happiness from a range of simple pleasures (clothes, cosmetics etc) than investing in the bigger things in life which aren't guarenteed to bring happiness - marriage, a career etc.