Here we go again. "Young people," frets Sapio magazine, "are rapidly becoming stupid." They can't read, can't calculate, can't communicate. They have no manners, no ambition, no interest in anything; no consideration for other people, no knowledge of world affairs. New technology enabling instant communication with everyone everywhere anytime seems, paradoxically, to be locking them ever more tightly into an ever narrowing, increasingly featureless little enclosed space called "myself."

Cases in point? Where to start? Sapio mentions university economics students who don't recognize the kanji characters meaning "exchange rate"; statistics students floored by questions such as, "If you reduce the price of a ¥3,000 item by ¥600, what percent discount are you offering?" Job applicants struggle to fill out basic application forms. They burst into tears at the mildest challenge to their solicited opinions.

Kenichi Ohmae, the eminent management consultant, writes in Sapio that in his 40-year career he's never seen anything like this. There's much talk of a corporate hiring freeze. That's a distortion, Ohmae argues, and quotes corporate executives who say they're willing enough to hire, but "if we took on people of this caliber, our company would have no future."