Approximately 72% of Junior and Senior High School Girls Respond That 'Having a Family Affects Their Career' — A 'Future Anxiety' Significantly Exceeding the Parent Generation (Approx. 48%) Due to the Burden of 'Meal Preparation'

Oisix ra daichi Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Kohei Takashima; hereinafter, "the Company"), which provides food subscription services, conducted an "Intergenerational Awareness Survey on Dining Tables and Careers" targeting working women and junior and senior high school girls nationwide. The results showed that approximately 72% of junior and senior high school girls responded, "I think having a family in the future will affect my career," indicating a greater anxiety about balancing career and family compared to the parent generation (approximately 48%). The Company's mission is to "solve social issues related to food through business methods," and it has been implementing projects that provide opportunities for the next generation to view these issues as their own. Shinagawa Joshi Gakuin (Location: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Chairperson: Shihoko Urushi) advocates for nurturing "change agents" who discover problems themselves and bring about change. The Company's desire to connect social issues with business, starting from "food," resonated with the school's philosophy, leading to the realization of a special class. This class provides an opportunity to learn about the connection between social issues and business, starting from "food." Survey Results Summary ■Q1 Approximately 72% of the child generation responded, "I think having a family affects my career," which is about 1.5 times higher than the parent generation (approximately 48%). ■Q2 When balancing work and family, both the parent and child generations responded that "meal preparation" is the most difficult/seems most difficult (parent generation: 69.6%, child generation: 63.2%). ■Q3 In "meal preparation," the most burdensome task for both the parent and child generations was "thinking about menus" (parent generation: 68.1%, child generation: 71.3%), followed by "cooking" (parent generation: 43.5%, child generation: 58.7%). It became clear that "what to cook" is more burdensome than "cooking itself." ■The number of dual-income households is steadily increasing. Amidst changing social environments, the child generation has more "future anxiety" than the parent generation. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Labor Force Survey," the number of dual-income households continues to increase, reaching 13 million households in 2024*. The female labor force population and employment rate are also increasing, and working styles are changing across society. In this context, in a survey conducted by the Company targeting working women and junior and senior high school girls nationwide, approximately 72% of the child generation responded "I strongly think so" or "I somewhat think so" to the question, "Do you think having a family in the future will affect your work and career?" This result significantly exceeded the approximately 48% of the parent generation. It became clear that despite the changing social environment, the generation that will be directly affected in the future is more strongly aware of anxiety about balancing career and family. *Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training https://www.jil.go.jp/kokunai/blt/backnumber/2025/04/c_01.html ■"Meal preparation" is a common, intergenerational stress for parents and children. "What to cook" is the bottleneck rather than "cooking itself." To the question, "What is the most difficult/seems most difficult thing when balancing work and family?" both the parent and child generations answered "meal preparation" as the top choice (Q2). The most burdensome task, especially, was "thinking about menus," reaching approximately 70% for both the parent and child generations. "Cooking" was the next most common answer, suggesting that "thinking about what to cook" is a greater burden than "cooking itself" (Q3). ■While half of the parent generation does not use "time-saving foods" due to a feeling of cutting corners, the child generation is positive, seeing it as "saving effort." When asked about the frequency of using "products that lead to time savings in cooking," such as frozen foods and meal kits, for weekday dinners, approximately 55% of the parent generation responded, "I don't use them at all," citing reasons such as "high price" and "feeling of cutting corners." On the other hand, approximately 51% of the child generation viewed the use of "time-saving products" positively, stating that "it saves effort in cooking," revealing a change in values between generations. ・Survey period: February 5, 2026 - February 12, 2026 (Internet survey) ・Survey attributes: 342 women aged 13-18 nationwide 553 women aged 30-59 nationwide *If you use the contents of this survey, please be sure to cite "Oisix ra daichi Intergenerational Awareness Survey on Dining Tables and Careers" as the source. ■Background of the Special Class Implementation As the social environment changes and the number of dual-income households increases, balancing career and family for working women is expected to become a more realistic challenge for many people in the future. In fact, this survey showed that approximately 72% of the child generation, who will be directly affected in the future, responded, "Having a family affects my career," significantly exceeding the parent generation. Exploring the background of "future anxiety"