Is concept of popularly heard “second life” about “after retirement” or in “virtual world”?

   “Second life” is a phrase frequently used nowadays. But the phrase has multiple meanings, and it would be confusing to read or hear what the phrase is used for unless its definition is clear beforehand. It might mean the “virtual world” where an imaginary life can be enjoyed by setting aside the real life on the internet or the real “second life” that the baby boomers who are now reaching the mandatory retirement age in Japan have to continue to live from now on.

   Lately, “second life” is increasingly used as key search words on the internet. The phrase has been elected by a portal site as the most popularly used key words for search. The frequent usage of the phrase may be due to the fact that it has multiple meanings and, therefore, it is used for searching in different fields and all the usages are added together.

   The virtual world for Second Life started to be operated by Linden Lab of the United States in 2003. After down loading a software to a computer, a participant can enter his/her avatar into a “city” drawn by computer graphic (CG). The avatar can then do “shopping” and “talk” with the avatars of other participants in the city. Virtual currencies are also available and they can be changed to the U.S. dollar. Some Japanese business firms have shown their interest in the program and opened their own shops in the virtual town.

   Concerning the “second life” after retirement, the massive retirements of the baby boomers are considered to be a focal issue of 2007. Business firms are showing their interest in consuming trend of those who are starting the “second life” after their retirement.

Fifty-fifty on Yahoo search

J-Cast, Inc., the publihser of J-Cast News, also operates a branch office in Second Life.

   “Saving money for second life” and “how can I make money in my ‘Second Life?’” are some of responses obtained on the internet search page when searched by inputting “second life”. The former is obviously concerned with the “life after retirement”, while the latter means the “Second Life“ in the virtual world. These two responses were followed in frequency by such response as the “business information on second life”. The third one was found out to be concerned with the virtual world. Some of the responses were easy to see what they might mean by reading their headlines. But there are those that are difficult to tell unless their texts are read fully.

   Comparing the first 15 or so of the responses on different search pages, it was found that most of them on the Google page were about the virtual world with only one meaning “after retirement”. Not much different responses were given on both the goo and MSN pages with most of them concerned with “after retirement” and a remaining few meaning the virtual world. Yahoo was exceptional with the two meanings split almost fifty-fifty.

   Besides Yahoo, the search page on which overwhelming number of responses meaning “life after retirement” appeared in the top group was “Yahoo! Second Life”. What they meant was a “service for the second life generation to create together”. Some of the headlines of those responses said: “how to live for senior married couples”, “search service for nursing care facilities” and “visiting hospitalized parents-in-law”.

“After retirement” is dominant issue on newspapers

   On the internet forum 2channel, only one came out that was not concerned with the virtual world. It meant, however, not the “life after retirement” but a club that seemed to be made up of young people who want to live in “the country near the urban area” in reality. It sounds like an invitation to make a fresh start of a second life by moving.

   General impression was that virtual world, rather than “life after retirement”, is in the main stream as far as the meaning of “second life” is concerned on the internet. Regarding newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, on the front page of the last Tokyo edition of the April 16, 2007 issue, gave a prominence to a story about “Second Life”. It reported about the virtual world and the intention of the business firms that were joining in the world. Searching through the headlines of articles carried of late by such newspapers as the Asahi, Mainichi and Yomiuri, it was found that they printed many articles dealing with the “life after retirement”. Their headlines were something like “’What we wanted to do are sorted out’ Second Life School, 70 people finished”, “Let it shine! Second Life. First step after retirement, What do you want to do?” There were only a few that dealt with the virtual world, such as “Carmakers, PR by virtual driving”. It appears that “life after retirement” is the most important issue in the real world.