TOKYO -- Influenced by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani's phenomenal success, "baseball player" has reclaimed the top spot among boys' career aspirations in Japan, while "pastry chef" remained the top choice for girls for the sixth consecutive year, according to a survey by staffing firm Adecco.

Tokyo-based Adecco has been releasing survey results annually since 2014, and this year it targeted 1,800 elementary and junior high school students across Japan.

"Baseball player" was ranked second last year, having been fourth or fifth for several years prior. The company attributes the rise -- hitting 8.9% of all boys' answers -- to the remarkable performances of Japanese Major League Baseball players like Ohtani.

The second most popular career choice for boys was "soccer player" at 7.1%, maintaining high popularity after topping the list in the past two years. There was little change in the girls' rankings, with "pastry chef" clocking in at 13.2% of responses.

For junior high school students specifically, the top choice for boys is "engineer" or "programmer" at 9.3% for the second consecutive year, potentially driven by the rise of esports and the mandatory inclusion of information technology in high school curricula since the 2022 academic year.

(Japanese original by Kazuhiro Ito, Tokyo City News Department)

The top 10 career aspirations for elementary and junior high school students are as follows:

Girls:

1. Pastry chef

2. Teacher (university, high school, junior high school, elementary school, kindergarten and so on)

3. Nurse

4. Doctor

5. Company employee

6. Hairdresser

7. Video content creator, such as YouTuber

8. Scholar/Researcher

8. Police officer/Detective

8. Singer

Boys:

1. Baseball player

2. Soccer player

3. Engineer/Programmer

4. Company employee

5. Video content creator

6. Game creator

7. Public servant

8. Doctor

9. Teacher

10. Driver (bus, taxi, train and so on)