Confusion over the term 'Youth'

There was some confusion over this sentence in recent editing practice:
                            Japanese youthS WERE unwilling to interact...
In the American use mentioned below, this will be correct; in the British use, 'Japanese youth were' is more appropriate.

The differing meanings of the noun 'YOUTH'
(1) state of being young
e.g. Youth only comeS to us once in a lifetime, so you better treasure it.

Used in this sense, 'youth' always takes a singular verb:  'youth' is/has/makes/destroys

(2) collective noun to refer to all the young people as a whole
e.g. He urges the youth of the country to defend the nation. However, the youth ARE indifferent to his words.
See also the title in this article HERE

The dictionary says that as a collective term, 'youth' can take both singular and plural, but I would recommend that you use a plural verb: 'youth' are/have/make/destroy

(3) a wayward young male; i.e. a young male who creates trouble (note the negative connotation)
e.g. The youth WAS captured by the police for peeping in the female toilet.

In the plural form:
The youthS WERE captured by the police for peeping in the female toilet.
See also the title in this article HERE


BUT in American English, and increasing in the global media today, the negative connotation of 'youth/youthS' in meaning [3] above does not seem to apply any more. When they say 'youth' as in meaning [3], it does NOT have the negative connonation, and it can refer to a female, i.e. just a young person. And the plural 'youthS' is just many young people.
Given this, instead of saying 'the youth of the nation ARE resilient' (meaning [2] collective term), you now also see 'the youthS of the nation ARE resilient'.

If all this is still very confusing, just use 'young people ARE' and all problems solved. Avoid the term 'youngsters' as it is slangish.