Bubble generation

Japanese people who started work during the late-1980s asset bubble, roughly those born 1965–1970. There is no official definition.

Births: MHLW, Vital Statistics (2025 final data, Table 4.1).
Birth years used on this page	1965–1970
Age in 2026 (after birthday)	56–61
Births in those years	10,816,211
Peak year	1967 (1,935,647)

Who are they?

The baburu sedai left school and found jobs during Japan's asset price bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when share and land prices soared and companies hired heavily.

No public agency defines it and the range varies. This page uses births from about 1965 to 1970, people who finished university around 1988–1993.

No Japanese public agency has defined this term; the birth years above are a common rough range.

Be born in Japan

What they lived through, and at what age

Ages are for people born 1965–1970 (the age they turned that year; those not yet born are left out).

Events from the timeline used in the game.
Year	Event	Age
1968	Japan's GNP becomes the world's second largest	0–3
1969	Apollo 11 lands on the Moon	0–4
1970	Expo '70 in Osaka	0–5
1972	Okinawa returns to Japan; ties with China normalized	2–7
1978	Narita Airport opens	8–13
1985	The Plaza Accord	15–20
1986	Equal Employment Opportunity Act takes effect	16–21
1987	Japanese National Railways is privatized	17–22
1989	Showa ends, Heisei begins	19–24
1990	The national university entrance test begins	20–25
1990	Stock prices crash; property lending curbed	20–25
1991	The Gulf War and the fall of the Soviet Union	21–26
1993	The employment ice age begins	23–28
1995	The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake	25–30
1997	Consumption tax rises to 5%; major financial firms fail	27–32
2001	The September 11 attacks	31–36
2002	Japan and Korea host the World Cup	32–37
2004	The Chuetsu earthquake in Niigata	34–39
2008	Smartphones arrive	38–43
2008	The 2008 global financial crisis	38–43
2009	Lay judges introduced; change of government	39–44
2011	Switch to digital TV	41–46
2011	The Great East Japan Earthquake	41–46
2014	Consumption tax rises to 8%	44–49
2016	The Kumamoto earthquakes	46–51
2016	Voting age lowered to 18	46–51
2019	Heisei ends, Reiwa begins	49–54
2020	The COVID-19 pandemic	50–55
2021	The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics	51–56
2022	Age of adulthood lowered to 18; war in Ukraine	52–57
2023	COVID-19 downgraded to a common infectious disease	53–58
2024	The Noto Peninsula earthquake; new banknotes	54–59
2025	Expo 2025 in Osaka	55–60

Public statistics

*University (undergraduate) entry rate in year of birth + 19, the spring most people born April–December enter at 18. **Annual average in year of birth + 18 (last year of high school) and + 22 (last year of university). Sources: MHLW, Vital Statistics (2025 final data, Table 4.1) / MEXT, School Basic Survey, annual series, Summary Table 4 / MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers, long-term Table 3.
Born	Births	University entry rate when they turned 18*	Jobs-to-applicants ratio at 17–18**	at 21–22**
1965	1,823,697	24.7%	0.60	0.70
1966	1,360,974	26.3%	0.65	1.01
1967	1,935,647	23.5%	0.68	1.25
1968	1,871,839	24.6%	0.62	1.40
1969	1,889,815	25.0%	0.70	1.40
1970	1,934,239	24.5%	1.01	1.08

10,816,211 babies were born in Japan in 1965–1970, peaking at 1,935,647 in 1967. When they turned 18, the university entry rate was 23.5–26.3% (33.9–38.4% for men, 12.5–14.7% for women). In the year they were in their last year of university, the jobs-to-applicants ratio ranged from 0.70 to 1.40 (1.0 means one opening per job seeker).

Game simulation: 1,500 lives

We ran 1,500 lives in the Born in Japan simulator for people born 1965–1970, choosing birth years in proportion to actual births and leaving every decision on default. These are game estimates, not statistics.

Born in Japan simulation (estimate). Money in today's yen, inflation removed. Future years are the game's assumptions.
Item	Simulation
Average age at death	83 years
Graduate from university or grad school	29.3%
Ever married by 50 (of those alive at 50)	75.4%
Regular (full-time) employee at 30	67.4%
Living in an owned home at 60	46.8%
Average number of children	1.53
Lifetime gross earnings, men (median)	¥220 million
Lifetime gross earnings, women (median)	¥134 million
Net worth at 65 incl. home (median)	¥25 million

The game's "Bubble generation" is also 1965–1970.

Real dataStatistics on this page

Births and total fertility rate: MHLW Vital Statistics (Japanese nationals in Japan; Okinawa excluded until 1972)
University entry rate: MEXT School Basic Survey (university entrants, including those who entered after a gap year, divided by junior high graduates three years earlier)
Jobs-to-applicants ratio: MHLW, annual average for all job seekers at public employment offices, not only new graduates
Definitions: the public documents cited on each page

AssumptionGame simulation

The "game simulation" table comes from running lives in the Born in Japan simulator with default choices
Wages and life expectancy are based on public statistics, but marriage, job changes and investing include assumptions without a source. Years after 2026 are the game's assumptions
Money is in today's yen, adjusted for inflation; expect a margin of a few points

Be born in this generation

The game starts you in its 1965–1970 generation group; your birth year, prefecture and family are chosen at random within it.

FAQ

What is the Bubble generation?

Japanese people who started work during the late-1980s asset bubble, roughly those born 1965–1970. There is no official definition.

What years were they born?

This page uses 1965–1970. There is no official definition, so ranges vary.

How old are they in 2026?

56–61 years old (after their birthday in 2026).

How many people were born in those years?

10,816,211 births in 1965–1970, according to Japan's Vital Statistics.

Other generations

All generations / Explainers / 日本語