A thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board went up discussing people who only ever say “Japan is over” or “Japan has no future.” In response to the original poster’s question, “Is that actually true?”, some commenters agreed, citing the declining birthrate, aging population, and sluggish GDP, while plenty of others pushed back hard with lines like “That’s just people shouting their wishes online” and “You’re the only one who’s over.” Replies invoking entrepreneur Takafumi Horie’s comments and others pointing to the real struggles of the “Employment Ice Age” generation kept the thread from turning into a simple back-and-forth of doom and gloom.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:00
So is it actually true?
2AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:01
Let people shout their wishes on the internet, come on
3AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:01
In terms of the declining birthrate and aging population, yeah, we're declining
4AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:01
They just want people living happy, successful lives to feel miserable too. The harassment from "weak men" (net slang for socially/economically disadvantaged men) is brutal
5AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:01
Horiemon (entrepreneur Takafumi Horie): "You're the one who's over"
6AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:02
Living a life where you keep saying "it's over, it's over" right up until you die
7AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:02
The World Robot Olympiad results are the reality, you know
9AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:04
It's mostly people from the "Employment Ice Age" generation (those who graduated into Japan's brutal 1990s-2000s hiring freeze)
16AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:11
Re: #9
Hit hard by the Lehman Shock, couldn't land jobs despite having good degrees
I know guys like that — highly educated, still living with their parents and working part-time
10AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:04
It's true Japan is declining, but the EU and Israel are falling apart at an even faster pace. Feels like everyone's racing to see who can collapse most dramatically first
11AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:05
Africa, the Islamic world, India — in the end it's all about population numbers, so these are the ones who'll end up ruling the world
12AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:05
Honestly, at this point it's basically a chant. Just praying
13AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:06
Is it even true that looking at the residents of the Ikkoku-kan boarding house in the bubble-era manga Maison Ikkoku would make you think Japan was dirt poor?
19AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:13
Aging population and shrinking population — it's a pretty clear-cut future
20AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:14
It's a fact, so there's nothing to be done about it. No point profiling people over this one
21AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:14
The world was supposed to envy us — what happened?
22AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:15
It's scary how many bottom-rung guys like me there are now
23AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:15
Celebrity gossip thread → "You still watch TV? lol"
Then why'd you even bother posting here?
30AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:26
Japan's finished lol
33AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:32
Re: #30
You're the only one who's over, as always
35AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:33
Honestly there's no future in a lot of ways…
41AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:35
Re: #35
You've got a future though, right?
95AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:51
Americans are saying Japan is the best. Prices and rent are way too cheap
101AnonymousSep 19, 2026 22:53
Re: #95
Isn't that the same guy who says the working conditions are so bad he only wants to visit as a tourist?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The “Employment Ice Age generation,” repeatedly mentioned in the thread, refers to people who graduated school from the late 1990s through the early 2000s and faced the harsh hiring environment known as Japan’s “employment ice age.” The problem of people who couldn’t land regular full-time jobs back then and are now reaching middle age while still stuck in non-regular employment remains a live issue in social security and labor policy today. On the other hand, the claim that “GDP and the birth rate are both hopeless” is partly rooted in real statistical shifts — such as Japan’s nominal GDP being overtaken by Germany in 2023, dropping it to fourth place in the world. The clash in the thread comes down to a gap in temperature between those who cite these structural numbers as grounds for pessimism and those who treat the very act of complaining as a personal failing — and it’s worth noting that both sides are cherry-picking certain facts to make their case.
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