Why Japan Loves Video Games...A Theory

I don't remember if I once read this somewhere or if this was something I made up...(I often start sentences this way, forgive me! I read a lot), but I have this theory on people who don't want to grow up. I call it the 'Peter Pan Syndrome'.

Basically, someone who is suffering from a Peter Pan Syndrome is an adult, (usually in their late twenties or older) who stubbornly refuses to let go of their youth. Maybe they're that 38 year old who still plays beer pong with freshmen frat boys or that 29 year old with a barbie doll collection, but a Peter Pan-er is stuck in a pattern of reliving a time in their life that, for whatever reason, was happier and more enjoyable than the one they are currently living through.

Can you see where I'm heading with this?

I had an ephiphany today while I was riding the subway. Sitting across from me were a row of 20-something Japanese men in suits playing with their video games. While this in itself is not an uncommon sight here, it got me thinking.

Japanese popular culture is entirely youth-obsessed. Adults fill their days with video games, cartoons and cute and cuddly stuffed animal collections. Women well into their 30's dress like twelve- year- olds in pastels and lace and speak in high-pitched 'girly' voices. A T-shirt simply isn't complete without a Disney character emblazoned across the front. The list is endless...

But the question is why? Why is Japan a culture of Peter Pans?

Here's my theory...

It's no secret that people here are stressed. Well paying jobs with good benefits are becoming more difficult to find but the pressure to find one isn't lessening any. Thus you have a high percentage of unemployed or part-time workers feeling worthless and inadequate and struggling against a rising panic that they will forever be a failure in the eyes of their family, friends and society. Then there are the few who are employed at a "good" job, but who spend their days working so hard to keep that job that they don't have any time to enjoy them.

Sometimes this pressure escalates to a breaking point and then people are forced to make a choice: Do I find a way to cope with a lifetime of responsibilities I don't want, in a career I hate? Or do I chose to die instead?

Quite a few chose death, which accounts for Japan having one of the World's highest rates of suicide.

But a greater many chose to cope...and cope the best way they know how. They lose themselves in the fantasy worlds of Television and video games and comic books. Or they binge drink, chain smoke or gamble. They surround themselves with an array of distractions in order to escape reality.

This isn't unique to Japan, it happens in every society. Everyone, regardless of race or culture, has their own coping mechanisms in place to deal with stress. And it's completely normal and to a certain extent, healthy. But even seemingly positive and healthy ways to deal with stress (like reading or exercising) can become harmful if they're done in excess.

And seeing the the Pachinko parlors that are jam packed at 12 noon on a weekday or the business man passed out in his own vomit on the subway stairs, or the college student going grocery shopping dressed like Cinderella, I can't help wonder if that's exactly what is happening in Japan. Japanese culture is suffering from a collective stress overload...and no one knows what to do about it. Most are trying their best to live in denile, while meanwhile this culture of shame and perfectionism and guilt is chaining these poor souls to a lifetime of cigarettes and Wii.

Is there any hope that the society will realize that the solution isn't in learning the best way to live with stress, but rather, the best way to eliminate it?

Note: You could actually apply this same theory to Americans, who are in many ways equallly stressed and overworked. However, Americans' Weapons of Self Destruction (WSD's) are a little different. They don't escape to Pachinko and inhale cigarettes, they escape to McDonald's and inhale Big Macs.

One society gets cancer and the other gets morbid obesity. But societies are in trouble because they're killing themselves with stress. And I think we all need to stop living in denial about that.