With contributions from some 370 celebrities, intellectuals and cultural figures of the time, the April 1920 edition of the now defunct magazine Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin (Japan and the Japanese) included a special article on what the country would look like in 100 years .
Sakio Tsurumi, then director of the government’s Forestry Bureau, predicted that the country’s population would increase nearly fivefold to about 260 million by 2020, about double what it is today. Professor Riichiro Hoashi of Waseda University expected that most of government spending would be concentrated on education, while the aging population has actually seen social costs rise. Yaichiro Isobe, president of Kokumin Eigakukai English School, wrote that kanji would be abolished and English would become Japan’s second official language, a far cry from the linguistic reality in today’s Japanese classrooms and offices.
However, not all prophecies were completely wrong. As physician Rinketsu Shikitsu speculated, the average Japanese life expectancy has indeed reached 80 to 90 years thanks to advances in medicine and hygiene (unlike approximately 42 and 43 years early 1920s). And technology has made possible the generation and storage of electricity from solar energy – something that civil engineer Ayahiko Ishibashi foresaw.
