How will your lifestyle change in 10 years? ~Visualizing your time use~

In the first installment of our Future Business Creation series, we explained the concept of "Future Persona" and how to derive it. This time, we delve deeper into "Future Time Use," which we also touched upon in the first installment.

Future Time Use is a tool that visualizes future daily activity time ( release here ). As someone involved in developing this tool, I'd like to use the visualized changes in daily activity time based on current data to envision what kind of people will exist in the future (= Future Persona) and what kind of lifestyles they will lead.

<Table of Contents>
▼What is Future Time Use, developed by Future Business Research Institute?

▼Will the Future See More Time Spent at Home?

▼Future Living: Increased Solo Activities and a Shift Toward Self-Focus

What is Future Time Use developed by Future Business Research?

Future Time Use is a comprehensive forecast of lifestyle activity times for the 2030s. It was created by analyzing time-series data on lifestyle activities (49 items total) derived from Video Research Ltd.'s MCR/ex(※1) using a statistical method called cohort analysis(※2). This analysis was further informed by the opinions of Future Business Research Institute's experts across various fields.

These future figures represent only the average time spent on activities in the future. When looking at individuals, some may work more, others may spend more time on housework or childcare, and still others might spend most of their day playing online games. Therefore, please understand that the future lifestyle activity times presented here are based on the premise of representing the "standard activity times" for society in the future.

※1＝MCR/ex
Abbreviation for Media Contact Report/ex. A database capturing consumers' activities for a specific week, organized by day of the week along a time axis, from the perspectives of "basic daily activities," "media contact," and "shopping behavior." It tracks activities in 15-minute increments, providing diary-style data on what people do and when during the day.
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※2＝Cohort Analysis
An analytical method that separates factors influencing change in long-term continuous survey data into: effects attributable to aging (age effect), effects attributable to the times (era effect), and effects attributable to generational differences (generation effect or cohort effect). Cohort refers to a group sharing the same birth year (or birth cohort).
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〈Four Aspects Captured by MCR/ex〉

Will we spend more time at home in the future?

So, what kinds of activities will "increase" or "decrease" going forward?

First, we've summarized the points showing significant changes for each segment (12 segments total: ages 10-60 in 10 years, broken down by gender) below (Figure 1).

For teens in the 2030s (currently under 10 years old), time spent at school will decrease. For those in their 20s (current teens), internet usage time at home will increase. For those in their 30s and 40s (currently in their 20s and 30s), work time at home—specifically, telework time—will increase. For those in their 50s and 60s (currently in their 40s and 50s), sleep time is projected to increase.

This reveals an overall trend for future lifestyles: "Future residents will spend relatively more time at home." This is evident because, except for a significant decrease in time spent at school for future teens (while time spent studying at home increases by 15 minutes for males and 17 minutes for females), all other time spent at home shows a marked increase. Within the daily time limit of 1,440 minutes, women in their 30s are projected to see an 8.7% increase (calculated as 125 minutes / 1,440 minutes × 100) in time spent solely on home-based work.

Here, we will introduce our vision for "Future Lifestyles" in concrete terms.

Future Lifestyle: Increased Solo Activities Shift Focus Inward

In the future, sleep time is predicted to increase significantly compared to today, and time for rest and relaxation is also expected to grow. Typically, sleeping is an activity done alone, so solo activity time naturally increases. While rest and relaxation can sometimes involve others, fundamentally, it's mostly about taking a moment to breathe and relax by yourself.

While these two lifestyle activities point to increased solo time, we also discovered segments where meal times decrease, though specific numbers aren't listed here. Considering meals are often shared with friends or family, a reduction in meal time suggests a relative increase in time spent alone.

As lifestyle insights supporting this future prediction, the Future Prediction Support Lab's website features "Keywords for Predicting the Future," introducing the term " Authentic Self Sustainability."

This keyword expresses a lifestyle where people deliberately choose solitude to rediscover their true selves. Perhaps more people in the future will engage in solitary activities to reflect on themselves, gain insights like "this is what I truly wanted to do," or contemplate the world philosophically.

Beyond this, other envisioned future lifestyles include:

• Time spent at school decreases. Educational settings diversify, such as receiving instruction in VR environments at home.
• The rise of the "time-rich" who effectively utilize time as a resource!
• Workstyles where you can freely choose your workplace, like living in a remote countryside home

And so on—even just brainstorming alone, I can come up with numerous possibilities.

You too might have had various thoughts, like, "If such changes in daily activities occur, other lifestyles like this might emerge too."

Future Time Use, developed by Future Business Research Institute, not only provides material for envisioning Future Personas, but also serves as a foundation for conceptualizing the "ideal future lifestyle" and considering how to deliver products and services to achieve it. If you're interested, please feel free to contact us.