Japan: aging, shrinking, weakening. Is there a foothold on this slippery slope down? No, says journalist Masashi Kawai, writing in Shukan Shincho (Jan 19). The magazine’s headline is “Dystopian Japan.” “Dystopian:” a bleak word for a harsh world. It suggests technology rampant, rule totalitarian, humanity submerged. The dystopia presented here…
Jan 30, 2021
One of the oft-cited entries in Mao Zedong’s famous red book of quotations begins, “A revolution is not a dinner party.”
Nor, would it appear, is a revolution a Mad Hatter’s costume ball. But one might not know it from the initial reactions in the Japanese media, which focused on the flamboyant garb of a certain individual who was part of the unruly mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
How did the Japanese media react to these acts of mass civil disobedience? Initially the coverage concentrated on the antics of a 33-year-old exhibitionist from Arizona, a self-described “QAnon Shaman,” who pranced into the U.S. Senate chamber and posed for photographs while on the raised platform in front of Vice President Mike Pence’s chair.
Staying at home during pandemic: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t Jan. 16 05:28 am JST Jan. 16 | 05:35 am JST TOKYO
“Stay home,” is the expert and official advice to a population struggling with a “third wave” of coronavirus infection. But staying home too much isn’t healthy, says Shukan Shincho (Jan 14). It weakens you physically, enervates you mentally, isolates you socially. Seniors are especially at risk, the magazine warns. Beyond question, close contact with others must be avoided. But extremes of any kind can be bad, and extreme compliance may be no less harmful than no compliance at all.