Young people the world over are stuck with the world as it is, a world they had no hand in making. From the sidelines they blame their elders for this stupidity and that, and vow to do better when their turn comes, only to find, for the most part, that youthful risōshugi (理想主義, idealism) dies with adolescence.

Maybe this time in Japan it'll be different. The numerous hangenpatsu demo (反原発デモ, anti-nuclear-power demonstrations) breaking out across the country in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi genpatsu no jiko (福島第一原発の事故, Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident) may be a sort of Japanese "Arab Spring," an awakening of a citizenry sloughing off its political mukanshin (無関心, indifference), its shōganai (しょうがない, "it can't be helped") mentality, its blind shinyō (信用, trust) that the authorities and experts know what they're doing simply because they're authorities and experts.

"Ima no nihon wa, hontō ni taisetsu na mono wa nanika wo kangaeru toki ga kite iru to omoimasu" (「今の日本は、本当に大切なものは何かを考えるときが来ていると思います」, "The time has come for us to think seriously about what is really important in today's Japan") said one speaker addressing a crowd of 10,000-odd. Big deal — except that the speaker was 14 years old and the crowd was in Shibuya, Japan's teen capital, a place not normally associated with serious thinking.