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Asian youth face the prospect of a bleak future as the effects of lost opportunity and social isolation resulting from policies to limit the spread of the novel  coronavirus harken the emergence of a "lockdown generation."   © Illustration by Michael Tsang
Asia Insight

Lockdown generation: COVID-19 upends Asian students' plans

With university experience on hold, traditional path to success gets a rethink

AKANE OKUTSU and KENTARO IWAMOTO, Nikkei staff writers | Japan

TOKYO/SINGAPORE -- Before enrolling in a Tokyo arts college for the April school year, one 18-year-old Japanese woman had expected student life to be full of new encounters combined with rigorous practical training. But instead, the novel coronavirus has forced her to sit at home every day for months in front of her computer taking classes online.

Now, as businesses and even primary and secondary schools restart, many higher learning institutions, including hers, remain closed in the name of preventing infections. "It is natural to feel that we [university students] are the only ones left locked up and being sacrificed," she told the Nikkei Asian Review, asking to be identified by her Twitter handle, maki.

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