What's interesting about city pop is that it evokes nostalgia in the generation that doesn't know that time. I was born in the late 1970s, so the 1980s were my childhood. To me, city pop is nothing more than "songs I heard as a child." But this is not a criticism of city pop.

Born to parents who could not be called wealthy, I have no memory of benefiting from Japan's bubble economy. Some Japanese people may have made money from stocks, or may have suddenly become rich simply because they inherited land from their ancestors. But to me, these things seem like events in a faraway country. For me, the 2020s are definitely happier. I still am not rich, but technological advances and social improvements are providing more than the actual "comfort that money can provide." Let's think back. When I was a child, drivers were more rough and honked their horns, and cars were not safe. The roads were not well maintained. As a result, the number of traffic accident deaths per year exceeded 10,000 (now it's around 3,000). Car exhaust fumes are terrible, and when I go shopping in Shinjuku and come back, the inside of my nose is covered in black soot. I feel like people used to be more barbaric. In terms of gender equality, Japan is in a pathetic situation of being "slightly above Islamic countries," but it used to be much worse. It was common to hear people say, "There's no point in a woman being educated." Regarding discrimination against homosexuals, Japan did not have the religious discrimination that Western countries do, but there was the prejudice that "homosexuality is a disease that should be treated."

I feel that young people have become more mature than previous generations. And they have become more intelligent. I think this is a phenomenon that is happening all over the world because of education. Men have also become more androgynous in appearance. If this reduces the unnecessary violence and war caused by excess testosterone, I feel that they are "adapting to a new era as humanity."

The benefits provided by the Internet and smartphones were completely nonexistent when I was a child. Nowadays, all the attention is focused on the harms of social media, but I feel that there are definitely more benefits than that. I offered a spare room in my house to AirBnB. 11 years later, I have friends all over the world. This is something that was unimaginable during the bubble economy.

Even if I had a time machine, I don't want to go back to my childhood.