Japan

Yesterday I finished reading Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun. It was a very good murder mystery, and that aspect of the book held my interest. However, I also found the book to be very disturbing in that it painted a very negative picture of Japanese business practices and culture. The book was written in 1992. In the 1980’s there was great concern about Japanese investment in American real estate and the trade imbalance. It is very interesting how the passage of a relatively few years can change the world’s economic environment. Japan suffered an economic reversal in the 1990’s

The picture shown above was taken during my 1999 trip to Tokyo. Lifetime employment had been the norm in Japan prior to their steep 1990’s recession. There were no homeless people. When the downturn hit, the Japanese society did not have the infrastructure to aid those without employment. The picture shows homeless people’s tents in Ueno Park in Tokyo. Ueno Park is home to the zoo, several museums and shrines. I was there in March when the cherry trees were beginning to blossom. It was a very lovely place, but it was also a great shock to see those tents. I remember a man sitting in front of his tent darning his socks. I thought this is really different than the U.S. where it is all too common to see homeless people holding a wine bottle in a brown paper bag. I have never seen anyone on the streets darning their socks here at home.