This is a study concerned with the role of play and meaning in human life-span development. In this study, the word?gplay?his defined as a spontaneous, symbolic, and imaginative experience which is perceived as pleasure. It takes place during free time, which means the time left after doing necessary activities such as sleeping, eating, and work. A questionnaire method was used for female youths, to investigate how the pleasurable experiences related to time spent watching television from infancy to the present. The subjects were 187 female college students in Tokyo. The questionnaire consists of background information on the subjects, the time they spent watching television and essay descriptions of pleasurable experiences. It also includes questions whether the subjects are content with their present life or not and if there is any pleasurable experience which the subjects want to hand down to the next generation. The results were as follows: 1) The average number of pleasurable experiences of each period was 3 but there were considerable individual differences. 2) Comparing the subjects who spent a long time to watch TV with those who spent a short time to watch TV, some differences were found between these two groups. The latter named more pleasurable experiences, and were more content with their present lives and had more pleasurable experiences which they want to pass on to the next generation. The results suggest that pleasurable experiences in childhood is not only related to TV watching but is also related to the pleasure of the present and the future.
