Where, and into what family, you are born

In "Born in Japan," the first moments of a life decide your birthplace, generation, sex, family finances, whether you have a single parent, your siblings and your parents' education. You can't choose any of these, yet they shape your schooling, your work and even how long you live. This page explains how often each outcome comes up.

Prefecture and generation are drawn in proportion to "population"

Your birthplace is chosen in proportion to each prefecture's population in the Statistics Bureau of Japan's Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2024 / Reiwa 6). The chance of being born in Tokyo is about 11%; in Tottori, about 0.4%. Your generation is likewise drawn according to the size of each generation (you can also pick a generation at the top of the screen). Sex is 51.3% male and 48.7% female.

Your prefecture matters for the rest of your life. Wage levels (prefectural wages from the 2025 Basic Survey on Wage Structure: with Japan as 100, Tokyo is 123 and Aomori 77, for example), university enrollment rates (School Basic Survey), the share of students who go to university in Tokyo, land price growth and the share of households that own land all differ by prefecture.

Family finances are shown as a position among ten equal groups nationwide

Your family's finances are expressed as a position (decile) when all children in Japan are divided into ten equal groups by household income. Nationwide, the chance of being born into any given decile is about 10%. But the higher a prefecture's income level, the more likely you are to land in an upper decile: the average for people born in Tokyo is above the middle (about 6.9 on the 10-point scale), while in Aomori it is below (about 4.6). How steep this tilt is is an assumption.

The chance of being born into relative poverty

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Summary Report of the 2025 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions (Kokumin Seikatsu Kiso Chosa), the child poverty rate (ages 17 and under) was 11.0% in 2024. The poverty line (half the median equivalized disposable income) was ¥1.38 million. In the game, we average the child poverty rates from the survey years that fall in each generation's childhood, and use that share to decide who is born into a family in "relative poverty."

The chance of being born to a single parent

In the same survey, the share of households with children that consist of "a single parent and unmarried children only" rose from 4.2% in 1986 to 6.8% in 2025. The game uses the share from each generation's childhood: from the baby boomers through the "employment ice age" generation the chance is about 4%, for the yutori and satori generations about 6%, and for Gen Z about 7%.

Roughly half of single-parent families live in relative poverty. The game first decides whether you have a single parent. If so, it uses the "one adult" poverty rate in the table above; if not, it uses a rate calculated so that the overall child poverty rate comes out right. As a result, about 14% of Gen Z children are in relative poverty, and about 50% of children in single-parent families are.

What family finances change

• Further education: The lower your family's position, the less likely you are to go to university. Even if you do, students from the bottom 30% are set to borrow student loans of about ¥3 million if they live at home, or about ¥5 million if they live on their own.
• Dropping out: The tighter your family's finances, the more likely you are to leave school partway (the overall dropout rate is kept in line with the statistics).
• Help when you start work, and inheritance: The higher your family's position, the more help you get when you start working, and the larger your inheritance from your parents in your 50s and 60s.
• Health, academic ability and lifespan: Your family's position shifts your starting health, academic ability and lifespan a little (about a 4-year difference in lifespan between the top and bottom).

Siblings and parents' education

The number of siblings is drawn as none 20%, one 45%, two 28% and three 7%, with one extra for the baby boomers and those born in the Showa 30s (1955–64). Whether your parents went to university is more likely the better off your family is, and lower for generations born in the first half of the Showa era. The more siblings you have, the more your inheritance is split and the smaller it gets.

Your era, and Japanese era names

Years are shown in both the Western calendar and the Japanese era calendar (Showa, Heisei, Reiwa). In 1989, it was Showa 64 through January 7 and Heisei 1 from January 8. In 2019, it was Heisei 31 through April 30 and Reiwa 1 from May 1. Era years are not shown after 2027.

Over the course of a life, the big events of each year (the postwar reforms, the high-growth era, the bubble and its collapse, the employment ice age, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the Great East Japan Earthquake, COVID-19, era changes and more) flow by as "the times." On the results screen, "The times you lived through" lists the events of the years you lived, with your age at each, and you can also see events in politics, crime, sports, culture, IT and trends, plus Japan in the 12 years before you were born.

Sometimes events overlap with your life. If you live in a prefecture hit by an earthquake, heavy rain or an eruption, you may suffer damage or have to evacuate. Depending on your age, you might watch the Tokyo Olympics on TV or be around when purikura photo booths or Tamagotchi were all the rage; if you were 18–19 in 2016 you vote for the first time, and if you were 18–19 in 2022 you become a legal adult. If you work at a financial institution, you may be caught up in the failures of 1997–98, and older people with children can be targeted by "it's me" phone scams (furikome sagi).

What you value, and decisions of the times

Each person is assigned what they value most: taking chances, playing it safe, ties to society, family, tradition, or success at work. Your generation (the bubble generation leans toward taking chances, older generations toward tradition), family finances, family lineage and household religion, social skills (EQ), learning ability (IQ) and your parents' education all play a part.

Decision points arrive in step with the events of the times: panic buying in the oil shock (1973); career track or clerical track under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (for women university graduates starting work in 1986–2005); whether to buy stocks during the bubble (1987–89) and whether to sell when prices start falling (1990); how to get involved with the disaster areas after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995) and the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011); whether to evacuate from Fukushima with your children (2011); the general election that changed the government (2009); your first election at 18 (2016); and the new NISA (2024). On auto, the game picks the option that fits the person's values.

The share of people choosing each option is kept close to real figures: 69.28% turnout in the 2009 general election, 51.28% turnout among 18-year-olds and 39.66% among 19-year-olds in the 2016 upper house election (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), about 1.37 million volunteer-days in 1995, and so on.

For the 2026 lower house election (voting on February 8), each party's main pledges are briefly paraphrased and listed by the issue you choose (real data). The seat results (LDP 316, Centrist Reform Alliance 49, Japan Innovation Party 36, Democratic Party for the People 28, Sanseito 15, Team Mirai 11, Japanese Communist Party 4, Reiwa Shinsengumi 1, and others) are also real data. On auto, the party you vote for is based on each party's share of proportional representation seats, tilted by your values, age and where you live. The share of people who go to vote (about 55%) and how the tilt works are assumptions. Party names are shown in a different random order for each person, so you can't tell the result before you choose.

Related: Going to school, and dropping out / How long you live

Next: Going to school, and dropping out