A record 78% of Japanese people feel anxious or worried, according to a new government survey.

That's the highest proportion in the 43 years the government has been asking people about these feelings.

Common worries among the adults who took part included health, life after retirement, and future income. Almost 64% of people said they're worried about their health, while 63% said they're worried about what their lives will look like after they stop working.

This was quite a small survey, however, and it was done by mail, with only 1,830 people across the country taking part.

Previous surveys have been done in person, and the government said people should be cautious before making comparisons between this year's survey and those done in the past.

But the survey did find that people in Japan are a little happier with their finances this year than they were in 2023.

However, 66% of people said they think the government should do more to combat inflation.

It's not just in Japan that people are anxious. Other reports have found that this is a real problem around the world.

At the end of 2023, almost half of young workers from seven countries said they found it difficult to work because they were so worried about what they saw in the news. Many felt they were living in a time of uncertainty, with wars happening across the world and geopolitical tensions rising.



Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

Japanese People More Anxious than Ever — Survey

When something — or someone — is annoying you at work, you may feel that you need to share your feelings with another person.

We often call this "venting" — letting out negative emotions by talking about what's bothering us. It actually comes from the French word vent, meaning "wind" — because you're letting those feelings out of your body and sending them off into the wind!

It might feel good for a moment. But is it really healthy?

There are advantages to venting, experts say. Keeping stress inside us can increase our risks of getting things like heart problems or high blood pressure.

And sharing our problems with others can also help make us feel connected and supported, which can boost our mental health, according to Rachel Millstein from Harvard Medical School.

However, there are some studies that have found that venting can make things worse.

In fact, Brad Bushman of Ohio State University says it's the "worst thing you can do," and he believes that venting may only make us angrier.

Whether it's right or wrong, experts agree that we have to be careful when we're venting at work.

We most often feel the need to vent when our emotions are at their highest. But Michael Wiederman, writing for the Psychology Today website, says it's better to take some time to calm down before sharing anything with anyone.

Saying too much, or sharing with the wrong person, could get you into trouble and bring you much more stress!

And don't forget to think about the emotions of the person you're venting to — your venting could make them feel stressed too!

'Venting' at Work: Is It Good for Us?

New Year is the perfect time for people to try new things, like changing their diet or habits. Some people take part in Veganuary, an annual challenge where they avoid eating animal products like meat, dairy, or eggs during January.

Veganuary first started in 2014 as a fun way to explore a vegan lifestyle and see how it feels. Since then, plant-based eating has gained popularity, and it's not uncommon for restaurants to offer at least one vegan option on their menus.

But a study has found that many meat-eaters end up feeling disgusted by meat after trying Veganuary.

Researchers studied 40 meat-eaters before and after Veganuary.

They found that, although most participants went back to eating meat when the month had ended, they felt more disgusted about doing so. And people who ate the least amount of meat during the challenge felt the most disgust afterwards.

A separate 2023 study on 46 Veganuary participants found that they were much less likely to describe themselves as meat-eaters after taking part in the challenge.

Scientists suggest that this change happens because people feel uncomfortable when their actions don't match their beliefs. Many enjoy the taste and convenience of eating meat, but they also feel guilty about the cruelty of factory farming.

So by giving up meat during Veganuary, participants may start to think more about these issues and develop negative feelings toward eating meat.

This research shows that even a short-term change in behavior can change the way you think, says Natalia Lawrence, a scientist from the University of Exeter who worked on the studies.

"Normally, the idea is to educate people first to change their attitudes, and hopefully they end up changing their behaviour," she told The Guardian.

"But if you persuade people to change their behaviour for a month, it seems that these things follow."

Going Meat-Free for a Month Changes Beliefs, Study Finds

On some tour buses, you'll hear the guide welcome passengers in a number of different languages.

And at airports around the world, announcements might be made in more than one language to help more travelers understand what's being said.

But in Belgium, a train passenger made an official complaint after the conductor used both Dutch and French to say good morning.

The problem for this passenger was that the train was traveling through a city called Vilvoorde in the Flemish part of Belgium, where Dutch is the main language.

But Vilvoorde is very close to the capital, Brussels, where both Dutch and French are used.

The French-speaking conductor, named Ilyass Alba, wrote about the complaint on Facebook.

He said that after greeting passengers, one had replied: "We're not in Brussels yet, you have to use Dutch only!"

And while many people have taken Alba's side, the person who complained was technically correct — only Dutch should have been used.

According to the country's language rules, only Dutch should have been used while the train was in the Flemish part of the country. And as Belga News Agency explains, Belgium's rules say only French should be used when trains are in the French-speaking part of the country.

But announcements can be French and Dutch in Brussels. And on trains traveling to Brussels Airport, Dutch, French, German — another of Belgium's official languages — and English can be used.

Some Dutch-speaking politicians have said it's important that conductors stick to language rules.

But the country's French-speaking transport minister said that making passengers feel welcome is the most important thing.

The train company, SNCB, agreed with the transport minister. "Saying hello in several languages is just nice, we can only thank our conductors for that," an SNCB official told Agence France-Presse.

Greeting in Two Languages Upsets Train Passenger

Each fast food meal we eat in a week could increase our risk of developing depression by as much as 4%, according to a new study.

Researchers from Iran also found that eating more than two fast food meals per week could increase the risk by almost a quarter.

They wanted to look at the effect of eating fast food on both obesity and depression.

Previous studies have found that eating a lot of heavily processed foods could lead to depression.

The research team thought that eating a lot of fast food was likely to cause obesity and that this could lead to depression.

However, they found obesity was not as much of an important factor as they thought it would be, and perhaps it was fast food consumption — and not obesity — that increased the risk of depression.

The researchers looked at data from more than 31,000 people in the US, taken between 2008 and 2018.

The participants were asked how many fast food meals they ate in a typical week, and they answered a survey that asked them about symptoms of depression.

During the study period, 11% of women and 7% of men showed signs of depression, although those with higher levels of education were less likely to be depressed.

Those who ate more than two fast food meals a week had a 24% higher risk of depression compared to those who ate fewer than two fast food meals per week.

However, the researchers say they can't prove that the cause of the participants' depression was eating fast food.

Each Fast Food Meal Could Increase Depression Risk

It's no secret that Hawaii is a favorite destination for Japanese tourists. In 2023, the islands welcomed around 573,000 visitors from Japan — the most from any country.

But did you know there's a connection between Japan and Hawaii that goes beyond travel and into clothing?

Aloha shirts, also known as Hawaiian shirts, have roots in Japanese culture, beginning with Japanese immigrants in Hawaii.

In the late 1800s, Japanese immigrants in Hawaii started importing Japanese clothing as well as rolls of fabric to make clothes with.

In the 1920s, locals in Hawaii saw these fabrics and started using them to make casual dress shirts with Japanese patterns on them. These shirts became popular with tourists to Hawaii.

Soon after, aloha shirts were made in bulk, but instead of using fabric made for Japanese clothing, stores in Hawaii started bringing in printed fabrics made just for aloha shirts.

And by the late 1930s, the designs had changed from Japanese patterns to the Hawaiian inspired patterns we're used to today — images of Mount Fuji and Japanese pine trees were replaced with things like coconut trees, surfers and fish.

But even though today's aloha shirts don't look very Japanese inspired, they still remain popular within Japan.

Yosuke Seki, an aloha shirt aficionado who goes to Hawaii every year, told CNN he wears his shirts daily, and hopes to inspire others to try them.

"Right now, I'm wearing a replica of one of the expensive designs," Seki said, adding that his shirt cost between $130 and $200. The more expensive shirts can cost thousands of dollars, he explained.

And for some fans, aloha shirts are not just clothing — they're collectable items, or even considered art.

Yoshihiro Nakano is the brand director of Sun Surf, a Japanese company that has been making aloha shirts for about 50 years. Many customers don't even wear the aloha shirts they buy, and instead just collect them or frame them, Nakano told CNN.