Some time ago, at the beginning of the new school year, which is in April in Japan, a Japanese school bag manufacturer surveyed new elementary students, asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up.

You can read the results here.

^{Photo from linked story}

Summarized:

Among boys, the allure of being an "athlete" reigned supreme, capturing 16% of the responses, with "police officer" and "firefighter/rescue worker" following closely behind.

On the other hand, girls overwhelmingly favored careers in the confectionery world, with over 20% expressing their desire to be a “cake shop worker/baker,” marking the 26th consecutive year for this trend.

Interesting results. There was also this:

Notably, the role of "researcher," particularly in the realms of dinosaurs and insects, witnessed a surge in popularity among the mixed-gender group, entering the top 10.

Japanese kids love collecting insects, so I'm just a little surprised that this is only now "surging" in popularity. I would have assumed it had always been high.

After reading the story, I asked my kids what they wanted to be. My oldest wants to be an artist, a geologist, and a yokai hunter. My youngest also wants to catch yokai, but also to be a baseball player.

So there we go. I wonder if catching yokai counts as a researcher... 🤔

I'm sure they said that because of Yokai Watch. The anime is several years old now, but my wife showed it to my oldest when he was little and he became addicted to it. It remains one of his favorite shows. And of course since he loved it so much, my youngest also came to love it. It is about a boy and a girl who befriend yokai to help them fight... well, fight bad yokai. You can think of yokai as kind of a combination of pokemon and ghosts.

I'm trying to think of what I wanted to be when I grew up when I was a kid. I don't remember clearly. Maybe fireman when I was really young, and later probably something like Nintendo helpline game counselor, which always seemed like such a glamorous job in my issues of Nintendo Power.

How about you? What did you want to be when you grew up? Or, if you are the Peter Pan type and still haven't quite grown up yet, what do you want to be when you grow up?

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.