文化によって、私たちの夢は形作られます。日本で20年以上暮らす中で、私は気づきました。日本人にとって仕事についての夢とは、単なる個人の成功ではなく、調和、職人技、そして美しいものに貢献することなのだと。
先日、日本の調査データを目にしました。多くの女の子たちが、ケーキ職人や保育士になることを夢見ているのです。私はそれを見て、限界だとは思いませんでした。むしろ、違う何かを感じました。それは、技術を尊重し、精密さを大切にし、他者に尽くす仕事の静かな尊厳を重んじる文化の表れだと。
しかし、ジャマイカと日本の間で暮らしてきた者として、私は静かに考え始めました。もしも、私たちが会話をもっと広げたら？もしも、女の子たちが、エンジニアになることと同時に保育士になることの両方を夢見ることができたら？医者になることと職人になることの両方を？リーダーになることと、他者を支える人になることの両方を？
世界中のデータが教えてくれることがあります。日本でも、イギリスでも、アメリカでも、オーストラリアでも、女の子たちは特定の道へ導かれています。しかし、その道が何かは、文化によって異なるのです。
日本には、その中に美しさがあります。伝統を尊重し、技術を磨き、卓越性をもって他者に奉仕する文化。そして、世界が変わりゆく今、静かに問いかけることもできるのではないでしょうか。私たちの娘たちは、どのような新しい夢を見ることができるだろうか。どのような可能性を、まだ想像していないのだろうか。
これは日本の価値観を否定することではありません。むしろ、それを広げることです。私たちの娘たちに問いかけることです。
あなたは、何を作りたいですか？
あなたは、どのような問題を解決したいですか？
あなたは、どのような未来を創りたいですか？
ケーキ職人として素晴らしい店を営むことも、企業のリーダーになることも、両方とも同じ根底の問いに繋がっています。
私たちは、娘たちに、自分たちの夢を完全に見る許可を与えているだろうか。
日本の美しさと、無限の可能性。その両方を、私たちの次の世代の女性たちが手にすることができたら。その時、日本はさらに豊かになるのではないでしょうか。

Executive Summary
Across the world, what parents hope for their daughters reflects something deeper than career preference — it reflects cultural beliefs about what is possible, appropriate, and desirable for women. This report examines career aspiration data for girls across Japan and OECD countries over the past decade, identifies key gaps and trends, and offers an expert perspective on what these gaps mean for the next generation of innovators.

The findings are clear: while gender-based career stereotyping exists globally, the types of aspirations differ significantly between Japan and Western countries — and those differences matter enormously in an era when AI is reshaping what every worker needs to be capable of.

“Aspirations shape possibility. And possibility shapes futures. What we tell our daughters about what they can become is one of the most powerful investments we will ever make.” — Sasha Lee Seals, Representative Director, Nagareyama LEAD

Section 1: The Data — What Parents and Girls Want

1.1 Japan: Career Aspirations for Girls (1999–2026)
Since 1999, Kuraray Corporation — a major manufacturer of synthetic leather for school backpacks — has conducted an annual survey of children entering elementary school and their parents. With 4,000 respondents per year (2,000 boys and 2,000 girls), this is Japan’s most consistent longitudinal dataset on children’s career aspirations.

Top Career

Source: Kuraray Corporation Annual Survey, May 2026 (4,000 respondents). Released May 5, 2026.

Separately, when parents of girls are asked what career they hope for their daughters, the results differ — reflecting a gap between parental aspiration and children’s own dreams:

Source: Kuraray Corporation Annual Survey 2022–2026; Nippon.com reporting on annual Kuraray data.

Note: A critical distinction exists between what girls themselves aspire to (cake/bread shop — top for 28 consecutive years) and what parents hope for their daughters (public servant, nurse). Both sets of aspirations reflect a consistent orientation toward stability, service, and caregiving rather than entrepreneurship, leadership, or STEM fields.

1.2 OECD Countries: Career Aspirations for Girls (2000–2022)

The OECD’s State of Global Teenage Career Preparation (2025) — drawing on PISA 2022 data from 690,000 students across 81 countries — provides the most comprehensive global comparison available. Key findings include:

Source: OECD, The State of Global Teenage Career Preparation, May 2025; OECD PISA 2022 Database; OECD, Gender Equality in a Changing World, 2024.

National surveys across the UK and Australia reveal specific career aspiration profiles:

Source: Careers and Enterprise Company UK, Survey of 233,000 Young People; Year13 Careers Index Australia 2024; OECD PISA databases 2000–2022.

1.3 The Key Comparison: Japan vs. OECD Countries

Section 2: What The Data Tells Us — Expert Commentary

What The Data Tells Us — Expert Commentary
By Sasha Lee Seals, Representative Director, Nagareyama LEAD

I have lived in Japan for over twenty years — two of those in Tokyo, the rest deeply embedded in Japanese communities. I speak Japanese. I understand the culture from the inside. And it is precisely because of that understanding that I want to engage with this data carefully, honestly, and with deep respect.

When I first encountered survey data showing cake/bread shop worker among the top career aspirations for Japanese girls — for 28 consecutive years — I did not see failure. I saw something more nuanced: a culture that honors craftsmanship, precision, and the quiet dignity of work done beautifully. These are genuine values, and they deserve respect.

But as someone who has also spent years in the global startup ecosystem — at UBS Project Female Founders, AWS Impact Bootcamp, Techstars Japan, and advising the Government of Jamaica on policy and diaspora development as a member of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council — I cannot look at this data without asking a harder question:

“Are we preparing our daughters for the world as it is — or for the world as it was?”

2.1 What Culture Is Telling Our Daughters

Aspirations are not formed in a vacuum. They are shaped by what children see celebrated around them, what their parents express pride in, and what their schools reward. In Japan, the cultural message to girls has consistently been:

• Your value comes from caring for others (nurse, childcare worker)
• Your value comes from creating beauty and serving with excellence (cake shop, patisserie)
• Your safety comes from stability (public servant, company employee)

In OECD countries, particularly in the UK and Australia, the message has been shifting

• Your value comes from solving problems (doctor, engineer, lawyer, psychologist)
• Your value comes from building something of your own (entrepreneur, content creator)
• Your safety comes from skills and leverage, not institutional employment alone

Neither message is entirely wrong. Both come from love, and from wanting the best for daughters. But they are not the same message. And in a rapidly changing global economy, they do not carry the same consequences.

2.2 The AI Factor: Why This Matters More Than Ever

We are living through what may be the most significant structural shift in the history of work. Artificial intelligence is not simply replacing jobs — it is multiplying productivity expectations.

Companies are now asking whether AI can replace a position before they hire. Research projections suggest that by 2036, one person equipped with AI may accomplish what previously required ten people. This is not a distant possibility. It is happening now, in industries from logistics to finance to creative work.

The OECD’s own research confirms the urgency: roughly half of the jobs that young people in Japan anticipate doing are at risk of automation. Yet career aspirations have remained largely unchanged since the year 2000.

“AI is not just a technology conversation. It is a wealth conversation. A mindset conversation. A parenting conversation.”

In this context, the career aspirations we cultivate in our daughters today carry profound consequences. A child directed toward service-oriented, stability-seeking roles may find those roles disrupted within her working lifetime. A child taught to identify problems, build solutions, lead with creativity, and create value — regardless of the specific job title — will be equipped to adapt.

2.3 The Mindset Gap Is The Real Gap

The data reveals a career aspiration gap between Japan and OECD countries. But the deeper gap is a mindset gap.

In Japan, the dominant aspiration cultivated in girls centers on stability, service, and craft. In many OECD countries, the aspiration being cultivated centers on problem-solving, leadership, and creation.

Japan’s values of craftsmanship and service are not the problem — they are an asset. The challenge is that they currently exist without the addition of entrepreneurial thinking, agency, and the belief that girls can also build, lead, and create.

The OECD’s PISA data makes this concrete: Japan is the only OECD country where boys outnumber girls among students aspiring to become doctors. Across all other 80+ countries surveyed, girls now represent 72% of those with medical aspirations. This is not a small gap. It is a systemic one.

Section 3: What Nagareyama LEAD Is Doing About It

Nagareyama LEAD is Japan’s pioneering youth entrepreneurship program for children aged 10–14. Founded on the belief that entrepreneurial thinking is not a career choice but a life skill, LEAD prepares young people for a world where security will not come from employment alone — but from adaptability, creativity, and the ability to create value.

3.1 Our Core Teaching: The CEO Mindset

At Nagareyama LEAD, we teach every child — regardless of gender — to think of themselves as the CEO of their own life. Not necessarily to start a company, but to:

• Identify problems they genuinely care about
• Design solutions and test them in the real world
• Understand how money and value creation work
• Communicate ideas clearly across different audiences
• Leverage tools — including AI — to multiply their impact
• Lead with integrity from wherever they stand

These skills are not in conflict with Japanese values of craftsmanship, harmony, and service. They are their natural evolution. A girl who runs a patisserie with a CEO mindset does not just bake cakes. She understands her market, manages her finances, builds her brand, trains her team, and scales her vision.

3.2 Real-World Results

At our April 2026 Sushi Tech event at the Shibuya Chamber of Commerce — in partnership with the Shibuya Startup Support ecosystem — 15 children aged 8–15 built and installed real working apps on their own phones in a single day, guided by the team at IdeaBoxes.

The moment a child shifts from being a consumer to being a creator is the moment their self-perception changes permanently. That is what we are building toward.

Nagareyama LEAD is also developing Japan’s first bilingual (English and Japanese) childhood entrepreneurship textbook — tested within our curriculum and currently in the pre-publication stage. We are seeking publisher partners who believe in expanding this program into schools across Japan.

“We are not just teaching children how to raise money. We are teaching them how to ask better questions, understand power structures, choose aligned partners, and build responsibly.”

Section 4: Recommendations

Based on this research and our experience at Nagareyama LEAD, we offer the following recommendations for parents, educators, and policymakers in Japan:

For Parents
Celebrate the full range of your daughter’s interests — including ambition, leadership, and problem-solving
Expose her to diverse female role models: founders, engineers, scientists, policymakers, as well as artisans and caregivers
Ask her not just ‘what do you want to be?’ but ‘what problems do you want to solve?’
Support programs that teach entrepreneurial thinking alongside academic skills

For Educators and Boards of Education
Integrate entrepreneurship and design thinking into standard curricula from elementary school
Create environments where students take ownership of their learning — as we have seen succeed in public schools within Nagareyama City

Provide equal encouragement for girls in STEM, business, and leadership activities
Partner with programs like Nagareyama LEAD to bring real-world innovation experience into classrooms

For Policymakers
Recognize youth entrepreneurship education as a strategic priority for Japan’s global competitiveness
Fund and support programs that develop the next generation of innovators, with particular attention to expanding aspirations for girls
Consider how diverse perspectives and international collaboration strengthen Japan’s innovation ecosystem

Conclusion

The gap in career aspirations between Japanese girls and their counterparts in OECD countries is real, measurable, and consequential. It is not caused by any lack of intelligence, creativity, or capability in Japanese girls. It is caused by what we tell them is possible.

This report is not a critique of Japanese culture. It is an invitation to expand it.

Japan’s values of craftsmanship, precision, long-term thinking, and service to others are profound assets. They are not in conflict with entrepreneurial thinking. They are its foundation. A girl who creates beautiful cakes with precision and care already has the discipline, the artistry, and the customer focus of a founder. The question is whether we also give her the belief that she can build something larger.

What Nagareyama LEAD proposes is not to replace Japan’s values with Western ambition. It is to add the mindset of a builder, a creator, a problem-solver, a leader — to every child, regardless of gender, regardless of background.

Serve with excellence and lead with vision
Create beauty and build systems
Honour tradition and embrace innovation

“The question is not whether your daughter should dream of a cake shop or a corner office. The question is whether she knows she can choose — and whether we give her the tools to build whatever she chooses, fully and fearlessly.”

About Nagareyama LEAD

Nagareyama LEAD (流山リード) is a youth entrepreneurship nonprofit based in Nagareyama City, Chiba, Japan. We develop entrepreneurial mindsets in children aged 10–14 through a 13-week curriculum, bilingual educational materials, and real-world innovation experiences.

Our founder and Representative Director, Sasha Lee Seals, is a member of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council (GJDC) representing the Asia Pacific region, a participant in UBS Project Female Founders, AWS Impact Bootcamp, and Techstars Japan, and a thought leader on childhood entrepreneurship and AI literacy in Japan.

Nagareyama LEAD is currently expanding its programs in partnership with the Shibuya startup ecosystem and is seeking publisher partnerships for its bilingual childhood entrepreneurship textbook.

For partnerships, speaking inquiries, or program information, please contact Nagareyama LEAD directly.

Sources and Data References

All sources listed below have been verified as of May 2026.

Kuraray Corporation Annual Survey of Children Entering Elementary School, 1999–2026. Released annually ahead of Children’s Day. 4,000 respondents per year (2,000 boys, 2,000 girls and their parents). Reported by Japan Times (April 8, 2024; May 5, 2025) and Nippon.com.
OECD. The State of Global Teenage Career Preparation. May 2025. Drawing on PISA 2022 data from 690,000 students across 81 countries.
OECD PISA 2022 Database. Career Aspirations and Occupational Expectations. Available at oecd.org/pisa.
OECD. Gender Equality in a Changing World. 2024. Including data on girls’ STEM aspirations rising from 35% (2015) to 44% (2022).
OECD PISA 2022. Findings on Japan as the only OECD country where boys outnumber girls aspiring to become doctors, as reported in: ‘What do we know about young people’s interest in health careers?’ OECD, 2023.
Careers and Enterprise Company UK. Survey of 233,000 Young People on Career Aspirations. UK.
Year13 Careers Index Australia 2024. Australia’s Top Gen Z Career Aspirations Report.
Nippon.com. ‘Persistent Gender Gaps in the Japanese Labor Market.’ Reporting on OECD PISA 2018 findings on Japanese high school girls’ occupational aspirations.
World Economic Forum. ‘Children’s Career Goals Are Lagging Behind the New World of Work.’ Including data on automation risk for career aspirations in Japan.
South China Morning Post. ‘Baker tops list of dream jobs for Japanese 6-year-olds but YouTuber rising fast.’ May 5, 2025.