Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social har

mony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don't know where they should go next.

The coming of age of postwar baby boron anti an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teenagers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed.

While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. "Those things that don't show up in the test scores—personality, ability, courage or humanity—are completely ignored", says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's education committee. "Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild". Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidence of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the "Japanese morality of respect for parents".

But that may have more to do with Japanese life-styles. "In Japan", says educator Yoko Mum", it's never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure". With economic growth has come centralization; fully 76 percent of Japan's 119 million citizens live in dries where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two-generation house, holds. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commute (travel to and from work) and crowed living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still below that of the United States, has increased by 50 per cent, and suicides have increased by nearly one-quarter.

In the westerner's eyes, the postwar Japan was ______.

A．under aimless development

B．a positive example

C．a rival to the west

D．on the decline