The term 婚活 (read: konkatsu), which means marriage hunting, used to be a trend in Japan a few months ago, probably popularized by the drama “Konkatsu” with the same name. 婚活 itself is derived from the daily used word 就活 (read: shuukatsu) which is a word describe job hunting process.
And now Japan comes up with a new term: 朝活 (read: asakatsu). The details of 朝活 can be seen in the video below:
The newscasters start out by explaining that 朝活 is a recent phenomenon where corporate employees (or in Japlish: salaryman) use their short period of time before commuting to work (i.e. 1 hour) for studying.
The video tells the story of Yoshikawa Kazuki, 29, who works as a field supervisor for a construction company. He goes to a desk-for-rent study room where he pays 13500 yen/month to use the desk and study for architect exam to get a certificate. He said studying in the morning for an hour is more efficient than studying for 3 hours after he gets back from work tired. And desk-for-rent helps him to concentrate better because there is no TV, PC, or any temptations. The study room which consists of 100 desks-for-rent has been overbooked since the number salarymen studying in the morning has increased drastically since last year’s recession.
The second part of the video shows a company that targets corporate employees and offers morning courses. The company offers variety of courses such as calligraphy, business manners, yoga, agriculture, etc. The video shows that company has received positive feedback from the students and gained increasing popularity in the working community.
