Korea Much Stronger Than Japan

A survey revealed that the Korean and Taiwanese children had a strong longing for the occupations with high social prestige, while the Japanese children did not have such a longing, but also lacked the confidence on their futures.

The Walt Disney International Japan made public the result of a survey on total 2,100 elementary school students from four countries, which was conducted during March and May.

Children were asked, ``Is there any occupation that you want to be in the future among company president, professor, TV entertainer, professional athletics, artist, judge, and doctor?`` Over 95 percent of the American (99.8 percent), Korean (97.1 percent) and Taiwanese (97.1 percent) children answered `yes`, but only 86.6 percent of the Japanese children responded positively. The majority of the American (75.8 percent), Korean (62.3 percent) and Taiwanese (51.4 percent) children responded that they wanted to become such occupations as professor, judge, and medical doctor, which could be achieved by effort, not by gifted talent or natural ability. On the other hand, Japan, however, marked only 32.3 percent of respondents in this matter.

To measure the confidence on the future, children were asked, ``Do you think you will be able to marry a spouse who you love?`` The 80 percent of the Korean, American, and Taiwanese respondents answered positively. But the Japanese respondents hit the lowest mark (55.5 percent).

In this survey, the characteristics of each country`s children were also brought into relief. The 50.7 percent of the Korean children answered that they studied over three hours everyday, and the 80.2 percent of the American children responded that they were the hard-worker type. And 35.3 percent of the Taiwanese children said that they might live in foreign countries. Interestingly, the Japanese children watching TV over three hours everyday reached 46 percent.

Prof. Fukaya Masashi (Seidoku College, Tokyo), the survey director, analyzed that ``the strong desire to class mobility was found among the children of Korea in which the academic cliques play a crucial role, and of America in which the individuality is respected as a higher value. And the Japanese children seemed to lose their confidence in the process of transferring from the academy-oriented society to individualistic society.``

Shim Kyu-Sun ksshim@donga.com