We've Come a Long Way!
– A distinct experience for each generation –

"Look, I know Japan has the fastest growing elderly population. The newspapers are full of those stories. But what the information doesn't tell me is how they live, what they want in life, what they are concerned about. These are the kinds of things I'd be interested in. In my opinion, these are the things statistics gloss over. It's like looking at a painting of people in which the artist has forgotten to fill in the faces."

We frequently hear this type of complaint from business associates and media people from other countries. Instead of a pile of statistical data, they want something that breathes life into the information.

With “We've Come a Long Way!”, HILL has started filling in the faces.

The writers Mariko Fujiwara and Kermit Carvell have woven historical and cultural facts with data from HILL surveys to produce a generational study of the Japanese people. In their work they describe the decades in which each generation was born in and has lived through. This provides the context for the life history of each generation.

In the Profiles, Fujiwara and Carvell create a composite picture of individuals within each generation. For this task, they had a palette of colors to choose from – interviews, their daily encounters with Japanese at work, on the street, and in their neighborhoods, and media sources. Each profile gives the statistical data and information a human face.