danieru in tokyo: quick things

Thursday, February 09, 2006

quick things

I met a young Japanese guy today who was complaining about the alignment with the USA. A few thing he said which I cannot verify, and only some of which I have tried to verify:

The US embassy is actively, and vocally encouraging the use of credit cards in Japan
10% of the population lives in Tokyo.
the population is aging rapidly, and government money is needed to pay for them
The above two facts mean that social disparity is set to increase is this almost utopian socially flat country as someone is going to have to give, and not everyone will recieve
Prime ministers before Koizumi-san went to Yasakuni, but nobody dared raise an eyebrow. The Asian neighbours are more powerful now, and unwilling to turn the other cheek
The idea of rewriting or cancelling article 9 is something that made him feel sick. A feeling that most of the Japanese youth, I am sure, will share. However, the fact that the people that I have met all feel this way is irrelevant - i have never met a Republican. And there are more Republicans than there are Democrats in Jesusland.
He wants to move to Germany as there are more holidays there

I met an Alaskan who came up with an excellent line: "America is beautiful in it's sacred hypocrisy."

I had lunch at Asterisk again today. A 2000 Yen lunch, and worth every single yen.

- posted by Daniel @ Thursday, February 09, 2006

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