For years, "YouTuber" sat at the top of the dream-job list for Japanese middle school boys. In 2025 it lost that spot to "civil servant," dropping nine points to third. It is the first change at number one since the survey began.

Survey Overview: Sony Life Polls 1,000 Japanese Teens

Sony Life Insurance published the sixth edition of its "Survey on How Junior and Senior High School Students Envision Their Future" on July 31, 2025. Fieldwork ran from June 6 to 16 and covered 1,000 students nationwide: 200 in junior high, 800 in senior high.

The series began in 2017 and has run in most years since 2021.

Middle School Boys: Civil Servant Takes #1 for the First Time

The sharpest movement in the 2025 data sits with middle school boys.

Middle School Boys' Dream Jobs (2025)

Rank Occupation Percentage
1 Civil Servant 16.0%
2 Professional Athlete 15.0%
3 YouTuber/Video Creator 14.0%
4 Company Employee 11.0%
5 IT Engineer/Programmer 10.0%

In 2024, "YouTuber/Video Creator" led with 23.0%. A year later it stood at 14.0%, a nine-point fall. "Civil servant," the new leader at 16.0%, had already been running second in 2024 at 13.0%. The switch looks less like a sudden break than a slow reordering that finally surfaced.

High Schoolers: Civil Servant is #1 for Both Genders

Among high schoolers, closer to actual career decisions, the pattern is sharper still.

High School Students' Dream Jobs (2025)

Gender #1 #2 #3
Boys Civil Servant (13.3%) IT Engineer (11.8%) Company Employee (10.0%)
Girls Civil Servant (12.3%) Teacher (11.8%) Nurse (9.5%)

Civil servant tops both lists. Stability-seeking strengthens with age.

Nearly 80% of Japanese Teens Anxious About Japan's Future

Behind the shift sits rising anxiety about what comes next. The share reporting they feel "anxious about Japan in 10 years":

  • Middle schoolers: 73% (up from 2024)
  • High schoolers: 77% (up more than 5 points from 2024)

Anxiety about "the world in 10 years" reached 72%.

Sony Life points to two drivers: inflation, which has become far more visible over the past few years, and the uncertainty that U.S. tariff policy has introduced into the global outlook.

Dreams Are Changing Too: Separating Stability from Hobbies

The "future dreams" question shows a different face from the job rankings.

Top Future Dreams

Group #1 Dream
Middle School Boys Making a living doing what I love (52.0%)
Middle School Girls Living a life with fulfilling hobbies (60.0%)
High Schoolers (both) Living a stable daily life

Middle schoolers say they want to make a living from what they love, then name civil servant or company employee as the actual job. The dream and the choice point in different directions.

Read as a split rather than a contradiction, it holds together: work supplies stability, hobbies supply the rest. On the question of what gives them a sense of purpose, boys in both age groups put "gaming" first, while girls put "oshi-katsu" (devoted fandom) first.

Why Did YouTuber Popularity Plummet?

Sony Life offers no single explanation for a nine-point drop. Surrounding data suggests a few lines of reasoning.

One is saturation. Low barriers to entry pulled in enough people to make the "easy money" picture untenable. Another is the cost of being visible: online pile-ons and privacy exposure are now widely understood risks of working with your face on camera. And with prices rising, a career with long odds is a harder first choice to name.

There is also somewhere for that interest to go. In a Nifty Kids survey of elementary and middle schoolers conducted from November to December 2024 and published in January 2025, "VTuber" outranked "YouTuber" for the first time. Interest in making video hasn't disappeared; it has moved to a format that doesn't require showing your face.

Role Model of Choice: Shohei Ohtani

Asked which public figure they want to resemble as an adult, both boys and girls named baseball star Shohei Ohtani first. That sits alongside "professional athlete" holding second place among middle school boys. Choosing stability, it seems, does not cancel out admiration for the outlier.

Update, August 2026: Sony Life published the seventh edition of the survey on July 28, 2026. Middle school boys put "IT engineer/programmer" first, its first time back on top since the 2017 debut edition, meaning "civil servant" led for a single cycle. High schoolers of both genders kept civil servant at number one. Among high schoolers, anxiety about "Japan in 10 years" fell to 69%, down eight points from the 77% cited above.

What are the most popular dream jobs among young people in your country? Have you noticed any changes in YouTuber or influencer popularity? Is the trend more toward stability or taking risks? We'd love to hear about the situation in your country!

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