Baker tops list of dream jobs for Japanese 6-year-olds but YouTuber rising fast

Survey shows girls still drawn to sweets and stardom, while boys look to badges, baseball and, increasingly, content creation

Becoming a baker remains the top dream for Japanese first-graders – but this year’s annual survey of six-year-olds also reflects shifting gender roles, growing interest in online fame and parental concerns over job security.

Ahead of Children’s Day on Monday, Japanese chemical maker Kuraray released the results of its annual poll on the career aspirations of children starting primary school in the 2025 financial year.

Among the 4,000 respondents, “patissier or baker” topped the list, picked by 11.7 per cent of children overall, according to reporting by The Japan Times. The popular response reflects a long-standing fascination with cakes and confectioneries, particularly among girls, even as the proportion choosing the job has dropped to its lowest level on record.

Second and third choices overall were police officer at 10.5 per cent and athlete at 8.5 per cent. But the results revealed diverging preferences by gender.

For girls, patissier or baker remained the top pick for the 26th consecutive year. Still, only 20.2 per cent selected the role – the lowest share since the survey began in 1999. Celebrity, singer or model came second at 9.7 per cent, followed by nursery worker at 6.4 per cent.

Among boys, roles such as police officer and firefighter climbed in popularity, overtaking athlete for the first time in two years. Around 70 per cent of those who aspired to be athletes chose either baseball or football – with baseball making a notable comeback, reaching its highest proportion in 15 years at 25.3 per cent.

A relatively new category, YouTuber, ranked fifth among boys at 4.8 per cent – a sign of the platform’s growing influence over children’s imaginations.

“YouTuber has consolidated its position as a dream job among boys,” a Kuraray official in charge of the survey told The Japan Times.

The poll also asked parents about their aspirations for their children’s future careers, with “public servant” being the most popular response for both boys and girls, reflecting a desire for job stability, according to media portal Nippon.com.

Civil servant and company worker remained the top two choices for the fifth consecutive year for parents of boys but, for parents of girls, public servant overtook nurse, which had held top spot for the past 27 years.

Labour shortage

If current trends continue in Japan, the future for these first-graders appears to be rosy.

Japan’s labour market remains tight, with the average unemployment rate in the 2024 financial year falling 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier to 2.5 per cent – the first improvement in two years – according to government data released on Friday.

In the financial year ending in March, the number of employed people in Japan rose by 370,000 to 67.93 million – the highest level since comparable records began in 1953, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

At the same time, the jobless population declined by 30,000 to 1.75 million.

Data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for the same period showed that the average job availability ratio was 1.25, meaning there were 125 jobs available for every 100 jobseekers last year.

The openings were mainly in the information and communication sector as well as accommodation and restaurant services, the labour ministry said.

Kisuke Yoshii, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research, told Kyodo that despite a slight decline in job availability ratio for the second year running, the labour market remained tight as the index was still above 1.00.

“The labour shortage has not changed, and such a situation is likely to persist,” Yoshii said.