Photo/Illutration A student receives her diploma during a graduation ceremony held at a senior high school in Kagoshima on Feb. 28. (The Asahi Shimbun)

“Sotsugyo Shashin” (Graduation picture), a masterpiece by singer-songwriter Yuming (Yumi Matsutoya), goes: “As I continue to change/ Adrift in the crowd/ I want you to chide me from time to time/ From afar.”

Who is this “you”? I used to assume it was some desirable person of the opposite sex. Now, however, I think it’s my 18-year-old self, if that makes any sense.

We’re in graduation season in Japan. With winds from the south bringing signs of spring, graduation ceremonies are being held at many senior high schools today. I can imagine hearing people wondering aloud whether they should be wearing a mask.

Come to think of it, this year’s graduates spent the entire three years of their high school life at the mercy of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They had no school trips or “bunkasai” annual school art festivals, and remote learning was the norm.

“This world is absurd,” a senior high school student wrote to The Asahi Shimbun. “I wanted to do what was ‘normal,’” noted another, while yet another said, “I hate coronaviruses.”

Rereading their comments sent to the paper, I acutely feel their frustrations.

But the teenagers were also perfectly capable of rising beyond their disappointment at being shortchanged in experiences.

“There are things only we can understand,” wrote an 18-year-old from Kumamoto Prefecture. Believing to have experienced many things high school students of the past never did, the teen continued, “I had many negative experiences that felt unfair, but now I’m turning them into positive experiences.”

There must have been places they wanted to go to but couldn’t, and things they wanted to do but couldn’t. There must have been many regrets.

Still, an 18-year-old from Iwate Prefecture noted: “If that alone were to qualify us as a ‘generation to be pitied,’ I’d be rather annoyed. I want to keep picturing a bright future.”

I heartily cheer their positivity.

Just as in Yuming’s lyrics, people change. They graduate from school and become adults.

But their 18-year-old selves, who struggled with their school life amid the pandemic but managed to get through, will never go away.

“You must not forget how you lived back then,” goes the song.

My congratulations to all graduates.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 1

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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