The social and material changes of the 20th century have led many artists over the decades to a consideration of individuality and the experience of private life. This has been seen in such genres as the so-called 'I novel' written in the first person and films that explore the unremarkable ordinariness of daily life and its routines.

The rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s produced changes in social arrangements and lifestyles; the expansion of cities and large-scale rural depopulation caused a re-examination of the individual’s experience in post-war Japan. The focus on the individual in this period was partly a reaction against the government's co-option of people’s private lives during the 1930s and 1940s in the service of the nation and the war effort. People were entitled to the enjoyment of individual pleasures and the consumption of material goods.

The majority of Japanese, however, remained subject to general social expectations, in terms of career paths, marriage and family. Certainly for women, changes in employment patterns and the options available after marriage have come only slowly, as a result of specific legislation. Now that the economy has slowed down and companies are reconsidering their policies of lifetime employment, the attitudes of younger people are changing, causing them to place greater priority on their individual desires and hopes.