Modern Japanese youth?

Question:

say living in cities like Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Nagoya, etc. (not huge as Tokyo, but still large)
ages - high school to college age, both boys and girls (age 16-24)

How are they different in attitudes or views from say, American or Australian youth?
Is there some traditional aspects that remain that are quite different? Any mistakes one would want to avoid making?

For example, openness..can people just ask about the other person, being outgoing and friendly, and not be seen as prying, or are people more shy?
Do youth (ages 16-24) have any traditional aspects about them?
For example, do they bow to each other?
Do friends of the same gender give each other hugs?
Is it common for a girl and boy to be friends?
How is dating initiated among Japanese youth? Is there a lot of casual dating?
Do Japanese youth go over to each others houses often? (I know for college age, might not apply since they live in dorms) But would people be invited over?

Anything else I should note?
I would like to hear the opinions of Japanese teens and early 20's preferably :)

Answer:

I'm not a Japanese youth but here's a quick tip - time when you ask these questions, most of them would be online at night (but not this late, it's about 3:30am there). So you'd get more responses I think if you asked this at a different time.

Anyway, I have some Japanese youth friends. It's per individual in Japan as it is anywhere. I have a Japanese friend (18 years old) and he is EXTREMELY outgoing, he's huggy, he hates bowing, he isn't traditional at all, he has many female friends, he doesn't like dating, and he's often hanging out with friends and going over people's houses.

That being said, he tells me he's quite different from your typical Japanese youth. He claims that most Japanese try too hard to conform into something they're not, and there's little variety with people because they try so hard to be like one thing. This doesn't go for everyone, of course, and people these days ARE becoming more open and casual than their parents maybe were (and with that, allegedly less hard-working). So going by what he tells me (in general):

- Most of them are shy.
- They are trying to be less traditional to "break away" from their parents.
- They do bow, but it's more of a formal thing, I don't think most of them bow a terrible amount with their friends (he actually didn't talk much about this).
- Usually they do not hug, but it's becoming more acceptable than before.
- It's not as common for a boy and a girl to be just friends as it is in America, but again it's becoming far more common.
- ”すきです” - My friend thinks this is childish, but that's how dating is typically initiated in modern Japan. You tell a boy/girl you like them and hope they will date you.
- I believe they do go over their friends houses just as we do.

I'd just like to mention again that no matter what they are ALL still different, some behave this way and some do not.