Kuraku Naru (Getting Darker) An Essay 

(updated 24th December 1999)

When I first arrived in Japan, 20 years ago, there was  a strong sense of optimism and an economy that was only going one way, up! The majority of people were pretty content with their lot in life, lifetime employment, enough good food, maybe even a foreign vacation, which was just becoming fashionable then, a government that was most certainly corrupt along with the bureaucrats and business executives, but scandal was unheard of, because it was never allowed to see the light of day, until the first major scandal involving Nakasone.  

The government protected all areas of industry from foreign competition, rice farmers, steel producers, ship builders, car manufacturers, etc. O.K., there were strikes, especially famous, was the old J.N.R strikes which saw loyal company employees walking along the railway tracks to get to work or sleeping at their office at nights until the strike was resolved. In Tokyo, many people wore smiles on their faces, happy with their life, children and teenagers were polite, didn't have dyed hair, generally, high school girls did not sell their bodies in order to buy a brand label dress or handbag as they do today. 
One of my Japanese friends remarked to me at the time, "Tokyo is always changing, old buildings are coming down and new ones are springing up, its so exciting". It was difficult to find an homeless person in Tokyo, everyone seemed to have a job and enough money, It was truly awesome for me to step into such a climate of hopefulness and confidence, coming from London, where a strike was a weekly occurrence and young people (like me), certainly, thought it was a natural part of life, and the working man had little hope of a bright future, until Margaret Thatcher came along to break the strangle hold that the unions had over my countries well being.
What has happened to that country that I fell in love with all those years ago? What has happened to the people of Japan, who have little to smile about now? What have the almighty leaders of this proud nation done? What has happened to Japans future, its children? 

In other sections I have started to address these questions, but with the continued nose dive of the economy and the moral degeneration continuing at an alarming pace, with a government who make empty promises and policies that have no effects, I have decided to speak out bluntly, because the sadness I feel for the decline in Japan needs to be expressed with complete honesty. 
It is high time for the Japanese people to get rid off the old power brokers in Japan. Those old men who for decades have ruled with an iron grip, behind the scenes, rarely mentioned, usually only in Western media are they talked about and sometimes criticized. They have ruled like the old shoguns before the Meiji Restoration, with little regard for the common man. Prime Ministers rise or fall at these peoples whim. The LDP is certainly not a "peoples party" it is riddled with corruption and controlled completely from "behind". They rely on the farmers and other associations for their votes. Why, you should ask, are rice prices so high in Japan? Why are there no imports of foreign rice? The answer, according to the LDP is that the Japanese people will not eat it. Fine, then those companies that import it will make a loss, not the government. The Japanese people should decide if they want to eat it or not. Japanese rice farmers need the barriers to stay in business, why isn't the government honest enough to at least admit this obvious fact and also say that they will lose a huge block of votes! That is one example of government propping up a redundant system for their own end, there are certainly many others. Lets look at the banking industry and what has befallen it. Corruption, greed, incompetent banking executives, racketeering and theft, all have occurred in Japanese banks. Few banks have been untouched by this debacle. The government is pumping trillions of yen into propping them up. The money is coming out of the taxpayers pockets. Is this helping their recovery, according to most reports (outside of the government), no it isn't, the situation with bad loans, is in fact getting worse. Maybe, like me, you have witnessed bank presidents crying and apologizing on TV, for the mess they have caused (the banks), what happened to them afterwards? Many of the banking hierarchy are still at their desks, running the banks that they helped to run into the ground. Others have retired, receiving very large golden handshakes. Surely they do not deserve it? Handcuffs would be more justifiable, one banker is perhaps going to return the money to the bank, and does he really feel any guilt?
How about other industries, such as, steel, shipbuilding, oil, cement, they have all been protected, they cannot compete against outside competition. Now the effects of all those years of protectionism have come home to break the back of Japans economic well being.

Drastic and severe restructuring is needed in all industries if Japan is ever going to drag itself out of the black hole that it has dug for itself. Too many companies "rested on their laurels" and did nothing to make products that would stand up to foreign competition, just on there own merits, and not protected by the government. The exceptions are the electronics and auto industries in particular. 

Risutra (:restructuring = redundancies) - is the word that no company employee wants to hear, the fear is at the back of a growing number of peoples minds, even in fairly secure industries, uncertainty of what the future may hold is becoming more apparent. It is a brave man, who will say with complete assurance that he will work for his company for another twenty years. Twenty months, I feel is also being optimistic in quite a few companies. 
Around 1997 I had a very interesting conversation with a very senior manager of a fairly famous company, He thought Japan should have done as the English had done under the Thatcher government, get rid of all the "dead wood" in industry and start again. This would have been good advice to the government, but they hid their collective heads in the sand and did nothing. Some estimates put the number of workers who are redundant but still working at around seven million. At the present time (February 1999) the unemployment rate stands at 4.3%, a conservative figure, how much higher can it go, maybe between 8-12% is not improbable over the next year or two. 


What happens to these people who were promised lifetime employment when they joined their companies after graduating from school? They commit suicide, they live in the gutter or they walk around aimlessly in a daze, a few try to retrain for a new job. A fifty year old man has very little chance of finding any kind of job, however hard he retrains himself, those are the simple facts of life in Japan, now. 

The government recently enacted a stimulus policy, which has been dubbed "the most stupid economic policy in the history of the world". Stupid, is not a strong enough word to describe it.

 The stimulus package: 

people over the age of 60 and families with children, will be given 20.000 Yen, for them to spend in their local shops, to help boost the local economies. Surely like me (if I am lucky enough to get it, foreigners may not get it even though they pay the same taxes, a case of racism?), families will use these vouchers to buy the necessary things in life and put the extra money into a savings account. This is another insane LDP policy, which I believe was intended to "buy" votes, for the upcoming election. Obuchi (Prime Minister) was brazen enough to say on TV that this initiative (?) will help the economy, he even said it with a straight face. Are the Japanese people "taken in" by this, I really don't know anymore, perhaps they want to believe it, like children want to believe in Santa Claus, but as they get older they understand, deep down that it is a fallacy.
There isn't a Margaret Thatcher type personality in Japan; all its so-called leaders exude weakness and mistrust. Japan cannot hope for any Prime Minister in the foreseeable future to turn the economy around. The electorate should devoid themselves of the LDP though, even if it only shakes things up in the political world, it is better than voting for a party who must take a large part of the blame for Japans demise. 

The children have little to look forward to, study, study, and study and at the end of it, unemployment! In England children drop out of school, they are on the "scrap heap". In Japan, children are forced to sacrifice their childhood, for what? Is it really any wonder that Japanese kids are forswearing Japanese society and all it holds dear? This is not a minor problem, concerning a few children; it is becoming an epidemic, from elementary to high school. Teachers are afraid of the children, carrying knives is becoming common, children are frightened of children, adults are becoming frightened of children. In a short time Japan has started to become like the streets of London, with youth gangs looking for an easy target, to take out their frustrations on. You do not need to be a fortuneteller to see where this may lead to in the not so distant future. With more and more disaffected kids out on the streets, the stakes are being raised. If as some people predict, total economic collapse with millions of unemployed, Japan will no longer be a safe place to live. The very lifeblood of Japan is running down the drain, every child in Japan is important to the rapidly growing ageing society, what value are they going to have in the future.

Untrained, undisciplined, lacking moral restraints, looking at society and seeing only dishonesty, corruption and hopelessness. Looking at their parents and seeing disillusionment and disappointment in their parents both of whom, having sacrificed so much to the fathers company. Then the company easily undergoing risutora and next finding him, after all, without a job for life. A defunct education system that allows for no discussion, no freedom of thought, unbending and rigid teaching methods, that only produce young adults that very often cannot think for themselves have few opinions that they are able to express with any clarity, and lack the dynamism that will lift this country off of its knees. The Education Ministry has made a halfhearted attempt to change things, with these changes, beginning in a year or two's time. Changing teaching methods and "freeing up" the curriculums has not been changed. Other government ministries seem to be unable or unwilling to carry out effective restructuring on themselves.

There are two many chiefs with conflicting ideas, where consensus rules. To ever make any important decisions, or take vitally needed drastic measures. This conundrum affects the government and bureaucracy through and through, leaving anyone whom understands the situation in Japan, with little to hope for in the future.
Murderers are starting to multiply, murder by poison is an especially insidious act. Poisoning lunch boxes and soft drinks and then placing them on supermarket shelves has become common place. Using a variety of poisons, many of which cannot be detected by smell or taste are used. The National Police Agency has told people to spit the drink out if it tastes strange. If there is no taste, this advise is (as usual for them) useless. I always inspect very carefully any can or carton of drink before I buy it, some supermarket employees look at me strangely, I want to ask them if they know about the poisonings or not. But I must restrain myself, like the rest of the problems in Japan, the Japanese try to "sweep it under the carpet", and pretend everything is rosy in the garden that is called Japan.  
The much feared Aum Shinrikyo cult (responsible for the gas attacks in Tokyo and many other serious crimes) are back. The legal system was incapable of destroying what must be enemy number one in Japan. They are growing in numbers, the ranks swelled by the disaffected youth. The police can only look on and wonder if they are planning to cause more havoc on innocent people in the future.

I know a couple of respected scientists who said that they would join the cult if they ever had serious problems in their lives, because the cult offers a sense of security and a father figure with whom they could look up to. So much for the intelligentsia of Japan.

Conclusion:

With so much going wrong in Japan, so rapidly, it is not possible for anyone to say that things will get better soon, as the Obuchi government likes to keep repeating, as if by repeating it like a mantra it will come to pass. Japan seems set to take a heavy fall, the government can do nothing to stop it now, it would seem. They have squandered too much money trying to plug a hole in the dyke that cannot be held in check in the manner that they have tried.

We can only hope that if the collapse occurs, then Japan will start anew, with a younger and more dynamic leadership at the helm to steer Japan Inc into a new era of comparative wealth, but more importantly happiness and tranquility for its citizens. I suspect that I will not be in Japan at that time as I have to consider the welfare of my family, especially, my children's education, which I would like to entrust to the English way of educating its young.

I do hope however, that my children, when they become adults will have the opportunity to see Japan as I saw it all those years ago, with hopes and dreams, a vision of the future uncluttered with serious hardships.
If you are a Japanese national reading this, then I at least hope that I have made you think about your home country and its myriad of problems and that you will consider carefully how best to change things. The ballot box is one way you can register your unhappiness or unease about the situation in Japan. Discussing these issues with your family and friends is yet another way. That is all you can do, but it is a beginning, more and more Japanese need to learn to question authority and not accept it docilely, this is the true meaning of democracy, that still seems to elude the Japanese people. Remember you voted for your government you must also take part of the blame for the problems your country now faces.
If you are a foreign national then I hope that I have at least underscored some of the hardships facing the people of Japan. It is not possible to explain everything, as I would have liked to because of the time factor. I do have a life outside of writing about Japan. 

If you have read my complete essay, I would like to thank you. If you would like to comment on it then, naturally, send me an e-mail. 

Update:
Since writing this piece, I have moved back to my own country, I thought I may feel a little differently about what I had written after the move, but that has not happened.

I believe even more that something must be done to stop the rot that has set in to Japan, it will certainly change how the Japanese feel about themselves and those around them. This will be very damaging to the society and culture that  Japan should  be proud of.

A certain man asked me to give him some ideas about ways in which to solve some of the problems that Japan faces. I was only able to tell him that the way in which the government is elected and the stranglehold in which the back room boys control Japan must be once and for all broken. People must be educated in the meaning of true democracy, and not go blindly to the voting booth, already instructed by their farming communes, office bosses, and so forth.

With the rise of a new more rebellious youth, lies the future of Japan. I hope that they will not conform to the old ways as their parents did, but be more dynamic and think for themselves.

There are signs of just such a move, with more young people starting their own companies, and also  not expecting or wanting to work for one company all their lives.

To those young people, we must all wish them the best of luck, the next millennium for Japan could be bright if they are successful and more people follow their lead.

 

Simon 

London 24th December 1999.


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