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The Story

Best of 2025: Why everyone's going to Japan

35 min28 december 2025

Japanese ‘kidults’ revolutionised pop culture in the 90s and 00s, turning to their inner children to cope with economic crisis and post-industrial societal ills, despite being ridiculed. As the milestones of adulthood - property, marriage and careers - become increasingly difficult for millennials and Gen Z to achieve - are westerners now turning to ‘kidulting’ to find answers? 


This episode was first published in March.


This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory


Guest: Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producer: Sam Chantarasak.

Further listening: 

Clips: SEGA, Pokémon Theme/POKEMON, MSNBC, CNN, AJ+, Sony, PlayStation, CBS, SXSW, TikTok/@otakuintokyo, TikTok/@kaitlyneats, Your Name/dir. Makoto Shinkai/CoMix Wave Films/Toho.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected].

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