From Asahi.com:

Japanese high school students less motivated than overseas peers, survey shows

03/02/2006

The Asahi ShimbunJapanese high school students are less motivated than their peers in the United States, China and South Korea to improve their marks, develop relationships or do anything constructive in their daily lives, a survey showed.

In fact, the survey released Wednesday showed that Japanese students have a strong sense of being just like everyone else, and tended to have a blase attitude about what to do with their time.

The survey was conducted by the government-affiliated Japan Youth Research Institute from October to December last year on 1,000 to 3,000 randomly chosen high school students from each country.

In Japan, 1,342 students in Tokyo and 11 prefectures responded.

The responses from the Japanese students differed significantly from those in the other three countries when asked what matters most to them.

In the question, students were allowed to give multiple replies from a list of 16 items, including: to play with friends or do what they enjoy; to develop a talent or skill; and to become friendly with someone they like of the opposite sex.

The U.S., Chinese and South Korean high school students gave many positive answers. But the responses from the overwhelming majority of Japanese students indicated they have no particular things they really want to do.

For example, more than 70 percent of the respondents in the United States, China and South Korea said they hope to improve their academic performances.

The figure for Japan stood at 33 percent.

About 40 percent of the Japanese respondents said they hope their relationships with friends go well, the most common item on the list selected by the Japanese students.

But the figure for that category was 67 percent for the U.S. students, 53 percent for the Chinese and 44 percent for the South Koreans, according to the survey.(IHT/Asahi: March 2,2006)