The Future (The Crisis That’s Coming)

Abstract

This, then, is the present state of Japanese society. Is it sufficiently bad to warrant the expression crisis? I think so. And there is no shortage of concrete examples to support this view. Moreover, many Japanese apparently agree, to judge by the number of articles and books they write in which the term crisis is used freely and frequendy. Others, who do not write books, know there is a crisis because they are out of work or cannot afford a decent living. Or because they are unhappy and frustrated. Or because they are looked down upon and discriminated against. Still, not everyone would agree. Certainly not the foreign apologists who find an excuse for everything or, indeed, those Japanese in the middle or upper classes who only suffer from inconveniences rather than actual hardship.