In this book, with its seemingly self-explanatory title, Noritoshi Furuichi argues that, despite Japan’s desperate situation amidst decades-long economic recessions, a deteriorating birth rate, an ageing population, the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the majority of its youth (nearly 80 percent) seem to be “happy” nonetheless. Noritoshi Furuichi is a young Japanese sociologist, a senior researcher at the Keio Research Institute, a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo, and a dedicated commentator on youth and political issues. Zetsubo ̄ no kuni no kōfuku na wakamonotachi (the Japanese title of the book) reports how Japanese youth deal with desperation and despair in their own terms based on the author’s articulations of youth theory, various interviews with young people, an extensive review of government surveys and publications, as well as his own observations as a sociologist and a young member of Japanese society. The book is unique in the sense that it documents young people’s reactions and moods right after the 3/11 natural disaster, reflecting the aspirations and frustrations of youth. At the same time, it is a book about youth by a young scholar who has thought much about youth theory and youth issues and debates with the former through multiple channels, including on Japanese television. This book is original and novel because Furuichi critically analyzes what it means to be a youth or young in today’s Japan with its challenging political, social, economic, and cultural realities. The 2015 paperback edition and the much-needed English translation of 2017, comprised of over 280 pages, are empirically-informed, scholarly, yet very enjoyable books on youth theory

中文翻译：

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绝望国家的快乐青年：日本的萎靡不振与千禧一代之间的脱节，古一典（日本出版业文化基金会，日本，2017 年）

在这本书中，以其看似不言自明的标题，古一典认为，尽管日本在长达数十年的经济衰退、出生率下降、人口老龄化、3 月 11 日东日本大地震的直接后果中处于绝望的境地， 2011 年以及随后的福岛第一核电站灾难，其大部分年轻人（近 80%）似乎仍然“快乐”。古一典是日本青年社会学家，庆应义塾研究所高级研究员，博士。东京大学艺术与科学研究生院的候选人，以及青年和政治问题的专门评论员。Zetsubo ̄ no kuni no kōfuku na wakamonotachi（该书的日文名称）根据作者对青年理论的阐述、对青年的各种采访、对政府调查的广泛审查，报道了日本青年如何用他们自己的语言来应对绝望和绝望和出版物，以及他自己作为社会学家和日本社会年轻成员的观察。这本书的独特之处在于它记录了 3/11 自然灾害之后年轻人的反应和情绪，反映了年轻人的愿望和挫折。同时，它也是一本关于青年的书，作者是一位青年学者，他对青年理论和青年问题进行了大量思考，并通过包括日本电视在内的多种渠道与前者进行了辩论。这本书具有原创性和新颖性，因为古一批判性地分析了当今日本充满挑战的政治、社会、经济和文化现实对于青年的意义。2015 年平装本和 2017 年急需的英文译本共 280 多页，是关于青年理论的经验丰富、学术性强但非常有趣的书籍