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The story
A poster claiming to have been born in 1968 wrote on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board (a general live-discussion forum) that “thinking about it calmly and objectively, the 80s were divine” — sparking an exchange that pulled in users from different generations. When a user born in 1986 asked, “I don’t know that era, what was so great about it?”, the original poster described the vibe of the time: “The streets sparkled, people sparkled, it was seriously radiant.” Meanwhile, cooler heads pushed back, calling it “way too romanticized” and recalling being “stood up by a friend and left waiting three hours — not fun at all.” The thread expanded from there to cover the bubble economy, attitudes toward love at the time, and even salary levels.
What people said
Didn't need the internet or smartphones.
Meeting people the analog way — that one-shot, one-chance feel — was nice.
Well, we had pagers at least, so it wasn't like you'd lose someone forever the moment you split up.
That's way too romanticized.
I'm born in '75, and I got stood up by a friend and stood around Yokohama Station in the blazing heat for three hours.
Not fun in the slightest.
If some Matrix-style device that sends you back to the 80s ever gets invented, I'll be so mad I'll crawl back out of hell just for it.
I just want to go back to that era, period.
I don't know the 80s at all. What was so great about it?
Same age as my dad 🥺
You're not old enough to be washed up yet, so please don't talk so negatively, I beg you.
Everything.
The girls were sweet and cute too…
Old man, do you even want people to understand how you feel? You think that'll get through to anyone?
Like someone said above, it really did feel like a festival every single day.
Like something fun was happening every day — it left your heart floating on air.
You mean like the vibe of Yakuza 0?
What I really want to know is what the early 80s were like.
Wasn't that the era of Akina and Seiko? (Akina Nakamori and Seiko Matsuda, two iconic 80s idol singers)
I picture it like Be-Bop High School or Rokudenashi Blues (classic delinquent manga/anime).
Be-Bop gave me chills.
Risa…
Don't know about that, but
the streets sparkled, people sparkled —
it was seriously radiant.
I get the gist now. That bubble-era festival craziness — like a big "Yeah, let's dance!" vibe.
Exactly, you don't get that anymore, right?
It was all flash and dazzle.
Hard question to answer. Personally, I feel like I'm living life dazzlingly (or at least trying to). I agree society as a whole isn't like that anymore. But since that vibe was just the norm for as long as I can remember, I don't see it in a negative light.
They existed just fine back then, actually.
Can't be helped, I guess.
But once you've known it…
I live in the tech world, so right now is exciting and I can't contain myself. Might be a different perspective from you old-timers, though.
But I do think it's beyond doubt that it was the era when Japan shone brightest.
There's probably something there.
Honestly, it was amazing.
Industrial output, land prices, stock market cap — Japan was at the top of the world.
I really wish the tech world would go ahead and build that Matrix device.
I'd love to just hole up in the 80s forever.
By the way, what were salaries actually like at the peak of the bubble?
J-pop's golden age was the 90s anyway.
No idea… though interest rates on postal savings accounts were great.
Either way, once you've had that experience, it's tough to be told to buck up now and carve out some other go-getter life in a totally different direction.
Everyone looked like they were having fun.
Once the 90s hit, things got money-obsessed and society started to warp.
Sure, "everyone," but there were also tons of people suffering from pollution.
Photochemical smog and all that was seriously bad.
Isn't it just that a lot of people happened to spend their youth in the 80s?
But the world's population keeps growing, though.
Sure it keeps growing, but that doesn't mean the people who spent their youth in the 80s are dying off.
Guess they've become a major demographic force.
My dad was born around 1963, I think, so the 1980s would've been right in his prime youth, I suppose.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Strictly speaking, Japan’s bubble economy is generally said to have really taken off in the late 1980s (from around the end of 1986 to about 1991), and much of the “streets and people sparkling” memory described in the thread overlaps with this later period. Since the original poster was born in 1968, the early 1980s would have fallen in their early-to-mid teens, a stretch that predates the bubble — which is why some in the thread pointed out they’d like to know what the early 80s were actually like. It’s a commonly noted tendency that memories of one’s youth get romanticized, and one reply made the sober point that “it’s only natural that the era you spent your youth in feels like the best one.” At the same time, posters also cited the economic fact that Japan ranked among the world’s top nations in industrial output, land prices, and stock market capitalization during that period — and this blend of plain nostalgia with genuine memories of economic strength is what characterizes this thread.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “I’m a guy born in 1968, and the 80s really were the best.”
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