Ikoma Rina in Yahoo! Japan’s “Nantoka, Naru” video for the “Jinsei Hard Mode Sedai”(Hard Life Mode Generation)

On March 30th, Yahoo! Japan released their limited video titled “なんとか、なる。(Somehow, I will)

The video is to promote the Yahoo! Japan app for the “New Members of Society” and are part of the “人生ハードモード世代” (Hard Life Mode Generation).  A generation that people classify as the one of the toughest generations to live through because of the numerous disasters.

The generation were born from April 2, 1995-April 1, 1996 around the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, were in kindergarten during 9/11, in junior high they lived through the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (Lehman Shock) which affected the world, by the end of their junior high graduation, they lived through the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disaster, by the time they prepared for university they would go through Japan’s tax increase and by the time they go job hunting, they live through through the North Korean missle crisis and by the time they experienced their adult ceremony, it was the year of the Kumamoto earthquake.

In the commercial, Ikoma and others are part of the new society and people look back on how their generation lived through tough periods in life, their message is clear “somehow I will manage”.

When Ikoma was asked if she worries, Ikoma said, “Since I graduated from high school and I did not go to college, I focused on the entertainment world and did not study.  So, I know I have to manage somehow by myself.  I do not want to live by relying on others too much or on someone or my parents as I get older.  I wanted to be a person who could live by myself”.