What happened when I dared to call it the Diamond Generation

I've been writing some trivial daily musings lately, and today I want to write a little about the term "Diamond Generation" that I've been using in them.

In 2020, the zodiac cycle came full circle and I turned sixty.

Ever since I was a child, I thought "kanreki" (sixtieth birthday) meant becoming a grandpa or grandma, wearing a red vest, and being someone who was ready to die whenever. As time went on, the incredibly energetic people of the baby boomer generation decided they would stay active until the day they died, refusing to lose to the young, running, dancing, creating, and working, and the average life expectancy of Japanese people quickly exceeded 80. Sixty isn't the end. People who live long lives get to live a whole new life from sixty, about as much time as it takes from birth to reaching adulthood. Amazing.

In the past, the retirement age was 60, so once you reached your sixtieth birthday, you would celebrate, retire from active duty, and spend your second life leisurely, perhaps in retirement or taking care of grandchildren. But now, you can't even get a pension until you're 65, and people are even being told to work past 70. You could say people have become younger and more energetic, but society has become harsher. The times are moving at breakneck speed. This is how the image of the sixtieth birthday has gradually changed, and after "around 40" and "around 50," the term "around 60" (arakan) was even coined.

I do wonder why it's "kan" instead of "four" or "five" once you hit 60, but perhaps it's because "around sixty" only leads to inauspicious words like "arashik" (sick) or "arashisu" (dying).

Still, "arakan"...
It's not like I'm Kanjuro Arashi or Kanjuro Araki (and why do I even know who those people are?).

As someone who has woven a life between the 60-year-olds of the past and the 60-year-olds of today, the terms "kanreki" and "arakan" don't quite fit me.

I think the idea that the zodiac cycle completes and a new era begins is wonderful, but calling myself "I'm at my sixtieth birthday" or "I'm an arakan" makes me feel a sense of dissonance between myself and the world.

It's not that I want to look young or that I don't want to state my age. I state my age with pride.

But when I say I've turned 60, being told "Oh, it's your sixtieth birthday" or feeling deeply that "Ah, I've reached my sixtieth birthday" just doesn't feel right.

It is a deeply moving and special age, and when I think about the next ten years, including both the positive and negative events, I do have a premonition that I am standing at a new phase of life.

So, I wanted to write those things down in this diary, but if the title were
Arakan Diary or
The Monologue of a 60-Year-Old Woman, then
no matter how much I think about it, it just starts to look like self-deprecating humor, and I think that words, words are truly interesting and difficult.

I thought about the term "Around 60's," but no, that's also quite painful. It feels vaguely like the bubble generation. Like the old Hanako generation transitioning directly into the Ku-Nel generation. Shudder.

And so, I forcibly dragged out the term "Diamond Generation."

In America, they call a 60th birthday a Diamond Birthday. (Though, it's not that 60 is special; they have big celebrations for any milestone birthday ending in 0, whether it's 50 or 70. Especially 50, which apparently involves a large birthday party.)

So, I think, why not just decide that I am the Diamond Generation?

It's the age where, after 60 years of cutting and polishing, the diamond's brilliance finally emerges.

From there, when I get to 70 or 80, I can just call myself platinum or crystal as I please. The "Crystal Generation" sounds like there's no boundary with the afterlife, which is very nice. If I turn 80 in exactly 20 years, the "Nan-Kuri" generation who read "Somehow Crystal" in their 20s will truly enter the Crystal Generation. The timing is perfect. Ah, I'm getting sidetracked again.

Anyway.

And so, once I started calling myself the "Diamond Generation," I feel like the world has changed just a little bit. It's kind of strange.

While also respecting the wonderful culture of the 60th birthday.

As for finding a balance between society and myself, I think I'll go with "Diamond Generation" for a while. I'll make it my personal buzzword of the year.

See you later.

As an aside, I decided to use photos from people who distribute them on note, and it feels like a mutual exchange, which is also a fun, new experience. Thank you.