Japanese read a bit longer than Koreans

On the second day after arriving in Tokyo, I headed to Uneno Park which is quite close to Asakusa where I was staying. There were many social activities including school field trips going on. I found a big group with primary school kids, their parents and teachers. Outside of the group, there was a girl reading a book.  She was so focused. I like people reading books. One of the things I am impressed whenever I visit Japan  is that there are relatively more people seen reading books from primary school kids to senior citizens. Compared to Korea, more people reading books are seen in the subway trains. Of course, it seems that due to the increase of smartphone users, the number of people reading books on the subway is fewer than 10 years ago when I visited Japan for the first time. 

I felt like googling to know whether my impression over Japanese reading habits is in accordance with the statistics. So I googled typing in " Which country reads the most." I found a page. Surprisingly, it was 'India' that reads the most( I had expected Finland which is popular for its high reputation of education system). Indians read more than 10 hours a week. Japnese read a little bit longer than Koreans. They read 4 hours and 6 minutes a week. Koreans read 3 hours and 6 minutes a minutes a week.  Chinese read 8 hours a week. My impression over Japanese reading habits was a bit matched with the statistics(Japanese read more than Koreans). 

Indians read 10 hours a week!

Chinese read  8 hours a week!

Japanese read 4 hours a week.

Koreans read 3 hours a week.


https://www.statista.com/chart/6125/which-countries-read-the-most/


I feel like visiting Beijing and Mumbai soon.

The most serious concern in Japan: shrinking of population

Taking the subway in Tokyo, I found two posters which advertize books. Interestingly, both were about the population issues of Japan. Even the posters show a lot. 

Strike of Shrinking Japan ( 縮小日本の衝撃）

The books is based on a NHK documentary over demographic change in Japan. I've never watched it yet. There is a big graph in the poster which shows change of the population of Japan throughout the history and the projection for the start of 22nd century.

Population in Japan

2008: 128,000,000 (the peak) 

2016: 127,100,000

2030: 119,130,000

2050: 109,192,000

2100: 59,720,000 

In less than a century, the populaton will be less than half the current one!

The Chronicle of the Future ( 未来の年表）

2017: 1 in 3 Japanese women is over 65. 

2018: National universities are on the verge of bankrupt. 

2019: Supply of IT engineers is  extremely short. 

2021: There is massive shortage for caregivers for senior citizens.

2014: 1 in 3 Japanese is over 65. 

2026: There are 7 million people who suffer from dementia and similar cognitive regressions. 

2030: Departments, banks, and nursery facilities disappear in local areas.

2033: 1 in 3 houses is empty.

2040: Local municipalities face the risk of disapperaing.  

I got an impression that Japanese society started to treat the problem of shrinking population quite seriously. I went to a bookstore called Yaesu near Tokyo Station to figure out what kind of books are popular these days. I found one of the two books on a shelf which was put to show the rankings of best sellers. Interestingly, 'The Chronicle of the Future' ( 未来の年表）was ranked as No. 1 in the newly released section. It was the first week of August.  For now (2017/8/6), it is ranked as No. 4 as a whole. 

http://www.yaesu-book.co.jp/bestseller/

I have paid attention to social pheonomena related to the demographic changes not only in Japan but also in South Korea. For now, one of the main issues in Korean society is the low birth rate. The population of South Korea is still growing but very soon it will face the same situation as Japan. There are still controversies over whether South Korea will face the same problems such as the abrupt falldown of prices of real estates and the potential growth rate, but most people agree that the matter is not whether South Korea will face the similar problems that Japan have gotten but how serious they will be. For the last five years, many books that observe Japanese sociey to get insights over how to overcome the obstacles South Korea will soon face have been published. One of them is 'Korean Economy, Money Starts to Betray '(타마키 타카시, '한국경제, 돈의 배반이 시작된다', 스몰빅인사이트(2016)).

The author, Tamaki Tadashi observed Korean society as a journalist working in NIKKEI for 30 years. He focused on the similarities between Japan and Korea and suggested that through studying the era so-called '20 years' of Japan,  Korea can get a lot of clues to avoid the hardship Japan had faced.  The most important thing which he concentrated among similarities is, of course, the demographic change.  The reason I paid attention to the book posters was that I wanted to observe how Japan has been changing with the decrease of population. One thing I found was that Japanese feeling the effects and treating them more seriously than Koreans.  I checked the ranking of the best seller books in Korea this week(2017/8/6). There was only one book related to democraphic changes, Myeonggyeonmanri(명견만리). It was ranked 7th.( as far as I know, the book became popular becasue President Moon recommended people to read it not because people became quite interested in demographic changes in Korea).

http://book.naver.com/bestsell/bestseller_list.nhn?cp=kyobo

Paul and Kenotic Christology

One of my friends who I think is still in doubt and turmoil looking for God like me watched 'Silence' and suggested it to me. I' have been interested in the history over how Christianity was introduced, spread and oppressed in Japan, so I watched it before I left for Japan. The character I focused on in the movie was 'Kichijiro' who sometimes helped Rodrigues and Garupe and sometimes betrayed them. Helping the two young Portuguese Fathers or betraying them like Judas, Kichiro was always suffering from guilt and fear.  Whenever there was a chance, he begged Rodrigues to get his confession. Looking at him, he looked scared over losing his chance to go to the Heaven. He was not the only one.  A couple of poor peasants kept asking Rodrigues to confirm they could go to the Heaven getting thier baby baptized. They chose Christian God to go to the Heaven.

Luckily  in the church I go to the pastor got me a good chance to think over a simple but profound question: why I need God. It was the question he suggested at the start of the sermon. I stopped and stood somewhere  questioning over whether Christianity can help people including me overcome their igocentrism. I thought that a lot of Korean Christians look like  they go to church and confess thier faith in Jesus Christ in order to be guaranteed something in their lives or after thier lives, which I guess is ultimately putting themselves as the priority. Of course, it is human nature to put oneself priority, but if there are no concepts or ideas to overcome the egotism in a religion, whether well-structured logically and theologically ,I have thought it could be meaningless. 

For the fellowship after the service, 'Romans' was dealt with for sharing ideas, which was a good chance as well for me to be reminded 'Paul.' Arriving home, I checked the books about religions and Christianity I have and read the parts where Paul was mentioned( of course, the amount in the four books I have over Paul was huge given his significance in Christianity). Fortunately, I found some clues which could get me a few more steps further from the place where I've been stuck.

Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think  of equality  with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privilages: he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appered in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. (Philppians Chapter2 3-8)

Paul emphasized the sinificance of 'emptying(being humble)' and asserted that we should empty(humble) ourselves. He said 'Jesus' Cross' is the the symbol of self-emptying. Understanding and accepting Jesus this way is called 'Kenotic Christology'(오강남, '종교, 심층을 보다,'현암사(2011), P147).

In the later part of 'Silence', Ferreira who Rodriues had been looking for, persuaded him to surrender his faith.

Ferreira: Japansese believe the distortion of our Gospels. They did not believe it at all. They never believe it.

Rodrigues: How could you say that? There are hundreds of thousands of converts from St. Fransis Javier through you!

Ferreira: Fransis Javier came here to teach Japanese Christianity and first try to figure out how 'Son of God' is referred to. It was 'Dainich' he was told. Can I show what 'Dainichi' is? Behold(pointing out the sun). That is  Son of God. Japanese can not think of any existence beyond the relevant nature. For them, nothing transcends humans. They can't not conceive the idea of our Christian God.

Looking at the situations of Korean churches polluted with corruptions, scandals, and crimes, I doubt maybe most Korean Christians believe in the distortion of Gospels like Japanese in 400 years ago.

Automation and Removal of Jobs

automated immigration system in Inchoen International Airport

I found a new immigration process system in Incheon International Airport.  After getting security screening, I did the process using the system. It is the automated immigration process system, which means it does not use human workforces. The automated one is confined to Korean passport holders and foreigners with specific residential status. It was the first time using the system, so it took a while to learn how to use it. But I guess it  will be shorter and easier to do next time. Like the automated immigration system there have been more automated systems introduced in Korea.

http://www.airport.kr/pa/en/a/2/2/4/index.jsp?tabIndex=1

High Pass Toll Gates

One of the most representative automated systems introduced in Korea is High Pass(하이패스). It is an automated toll paying system for high ways. If you buy a gadget for paying tolls and a prepaid card(or a registered credit card), you can use High Pass System.  Even though it takes a bit of money to buy the gadget(around 25,000 won), you can get discounts and go through tollgates without stopping for getting tickets. Simply speaking, it is very convenient.  But the system is not good for everyone. After the introduction of the system, there have been seen fewer cashier in tollgates. The jobs usually used to go to middle-aged women, but due to the introduction and extention of High Pass System, there have been fewer positions available. According to Kyunghyangshinmun(경향신문), Korea Expressway Corporation(한국도로공사) which manages the overall highway systems in Korea announced its long term restructuring plan including cutting down the number of tollgate cashiers. KEC planned to upgrade the current tolling system getting tolls by High Pass and cashiers to so called 'Smart Tolling' which uses zero human cashiers until 2020 ("한국도로공사 톨게이트 수납원 7233명 '칼바람' 예고", 경향신문 인터넷판, 2015년9월11일).

7233 tollgate cashiers on the verge of getting fired (Kyunghyangshinmun, 2015/9/17)

Mega Don Quixote in Shibuya in Tokyo

 This kinds of trend of automation and removal of jobs are seen more easily in Japan. I visited Mega Don Quixote in Shibuya in Tokyo. Don Quixote stores have almost everything I need when I travel Japan with very reasonble prices. They are, as seen in the photo above, tax free shops for foreign tourist customers. But they are quite popular among Japanese youngsters because the goods are quite cheap. They are seen almost all the main landmarks in main cities in Japan such as Tokyo and Osaka.  But, I found very interesting machines in Mega don Quixote in Shibuya. 

self cashier machine

The machine in the photo above is not for cashiers hired but for the customers. A clerk right next to it checks the bar-codes of the goods and put them in the plastic back. Then, the customer puts in cash  or use a special membership card charged with cash (called Majika) for payment. As a matter of fact, even checking the bar-codes is customers' job. Of course, the machine can be used partly because there is relatively low frequencies of shoplifting in Japan. But another thing to be pointed out is that with the machines introduced in the shops, the demand for staff decreases. Many Japanese companies have complained of the difficulty in getting workforces because of aging and shrinking of working-age population, but it doesn't seem that the situation put the people in the labor market on a more advantageous position.

"There will be a talk between North Korea and the U.S. soon" by Jeong Se Hyeon, the Former Minister of Unification

Jeong Se Hyeon(정세현), from 프레시안

Jeong Se Hyun(정세현), the former minister of the Department of Unification(통일부) came out in one of the most popular politics talkshow, 'Papa Is(파파이스)' and revealed quite unique stances and solutions over the tension in East Asia. They are quite interesting that I thought it would be beneficial to share his words with more people(English translation could be good). 

 His unique stances and solutions over the North Korea's nuclear arms experiments are not the only reasons why I thought his talk in the show was worth being translated to English and shared. His career records themselves show how worth listening his words are. He took a crucial role as the minister of the Department of Unification(통일부) in both Kim Dae Jung's administration and Roh Moo Hyeon's, when there was rapid progress of the relationship between South Korea and North Korea. Practically he led the administrations' conversations with North Korea. He met the North Korean leader, Kim Jung Il(김정일) several times and the rest high ranked officials hundreds of times. He has direct experiences over North Korean politics and diplomacy, which makes him different from other opionion makers and scholars who have never talked with North Korean diplomats at all. 

From Youtube

  For the readers who don't know about the talkshow 'Papa Is(파파이스)', it is the politics talkshow hosted by 'Kim Eo Jun'(김어준), a weirdo of the current Korean society. He is the pioneer who ventured to make a new media environment in Korea. He started his own podcasting show,'Nakkomsu(나꼼수)' in 2011 and make a destructive but creative stirrs on journalism. I will introduce him more specifically next time. 'Q' is Kim Eo Jun and another show hostess Song Chae Kyoung Hwa(송채경화) and 'A' is Jeong Se Hyeon(정세현)

Kim Eo Jun(김어준), from Kyobobook.com

Q: Main newspapers, cable news channels were talking about high possibility of the war in Korean Peninsula. But you mentioned the issue of defense bugdets of the U.S. and kept saying that there wouldn't be a war at all.  Then, why do you think U.S. President Trump react so overly?

A: As you know,  there was harsh verbal war between North Korea and the U. S. which led 'the Rumor of August Crisis(8월 위기설).' Trump expressed his anger with tough words like 'Fast and Furious.' But I claimed that there would be no war between the two. Basically, the U.S can't afford the war. Let's look back the case of Youngbyeon(영변) in 1994. Actually the U.S prepared for air strikes against the nuclear facilities in North Korea. It thought it would take just 3 days to end the situation. But the bigger concern was the concequences after the strikes. North Korean military reaction was strong enough to make Seoul destroyed in a moment. If it had happened, it could have been the Second Korean War. The casualties could have been catastrophic.  For the recovery after the war, it might have taken more than 300 billion dollars. And the U.S. might have taken all the responsibilities, even moral ones.At that moment, Kim Il Sung(김일성) suggested the summit between him and the South Korean president. The war didn't take place.  Cosidering the current situation, there is no specific information where the nuclear arms exists. Even if one of them  is destroyed, the consequences will be overwhelming including radioactive pollutions spread out. North Korea will do military counteraction and China won't stand watching it, which the U.S. can't afford deal with. That's why I reiterated there wouldn't a war between North Korea and the U.S.

Q: Then, why was Trump so furious?

A: The fiscal year of the U.S. administration starts in October. August is the peak time for assessing the budget plan. The MIC(Military Industrial Complex) and the scholars related to them spread the rumors over the possibility of the war and the atmosphere of tension. Then the bugdet is not cut down. Specifically, the defense budget for the Pacific area won't be slashed down. But I don't mean that Trump intended it.  He was just emotional. 

Q: South Korean president Moon repeatedly emphasized that there won't be any kind of war in Korean Peninsula without South Korea's permission or agreement. What's the reality of 'the Wartime Control'  between South Korea and the U.S.?

A:  Moon and Trump had already agreed on that. President Moon said South Korea will face catastrophic disasters if the war takes place.  Millions of people will die.  For such a serious decision, it does not make sense U.S. alone decides to have a war in Korean Peninsula. After the conversation, President Trump soothed his attitude against North Korea. But it is true that many media, especially conservative newspapers in South Korea reiterated that the U.S. can preemept North Korea. 

Q: Then, what's wrong with the media? I think they should have said that a third country can not make that critical decision on Korean Peninsula. There are no media which said so except for Hangyeorae(한겨레). Anyway, what's necessary for resumption of talk between South Korea and North Korea? 

A: The new administration should have sent a special envoy to North Korea right after the four special envoys came back. South Korea should have taken a mediator role between the U.S. and North Korea. But it didn't. The recovery of the relationship between South Korea and North Korea won't take a long time because of the experience of 10 years during the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Mu Hyeon's  administrations.  The problem is that the new administration just followed the tracks U.S and Japan agreed on; sanctions. 

Q: Do you think North Korea wanted the special envoy from the new administration to come?

Choi Son Hui(최선희), from JoongAngIlbo(중앙일보)

A: From my experiences, they were waiting for the special envoy. North Korea wants South Korea to intervene between North Korea and the U.S.  Actually, Kim Dae Jung and Roh Mu Hyeon's administrations promoted the conversation between North Korea and the U.S. That's why North Korea was quite cooperative for a while. But Bush administration broke the compromises and North Korea commited nuclear experiments. For the current situation, the U.S. government has soothed its harsh stance first. There is a kind of atmosphere for the resumption of conversation.  Recently Choi Son Hui(최선희), the Chief Director of the Department of the U.S of North Korea said she wanted to visit the U.S., which implies that there is a conversation ongoing behind the curtains between North Korea and the U. S. I guess they are moving to make a kind of momentum to have a table for serious talk.  There could be any conversation even in New York, when it is the best time to send a special envoy and suggest something attractive. Then, there will be recovery of channels of communication between South Korea and North Korea.  South Korea can take the mediator role. 

Q: You think it is a good opportunity.

A:  When the rumors of the conversation become real, South Korea should swiftly join in.  South Korean government should prepare for the moment.  It may be after August. There is Ulji Freedom Gurdian Drill(을지프리덤가디언훈련). 'Come September!' There will be a great timing to resume the talk in September. 

Q: What is the best attitude towards the missiles?

A: North Korea has experiences that  it brought the U.S. to the table, but  got a answer that it hadn't wanted.  To get a better position, it will do something provocative. Missiles and the nuclear arms are their tools to bring the U.S. to the table. North Korea has the experiences. Look at the example of 'Guam.' U.S. shrank. 

Q: Then, North Korea would do two-track strategies to keep doing the experiments and and trying to have dialogues with the U.S.

A: Depending on the characters of the U.S. administration, the approaches have been different.  Sometimes, talk was prefered, and sometimes not.  Clinton's administration  prefered talk, and until 2002  there was no nuclear issue from North Korea.  But Bush broke the compromise and tried to press down North Korea. In 2006, North Korea did nuclear experiments. Then in November that year, Bush suggested conversation. They made an another agreement in 2007.  But the government changed.  North Korea's brinkmanship(벼랑끝 전술) worked. Then, let's look at the current situation. U.S. tried to sanction North Korea, but economic growth rate of North Korea in 2016 was 3.9%.  Santions didn't work. The U.S. blames China. But the U.S. misunderstands the relationship between North Korea and the China.  The U. S. tends to think that less powerfull ally country will be obedient to the more powerful ally country like the case of the agreement over 'Comfort Women' issue between South Korea and Japan which was made under the pressure by the U.S. government to both sides. But North Korea is not under control by China. During the 50s and 60s, North Korea pursued 'Equidstand Dimplomacy(등거리 외교)' bewteen China and the Soviet to get the most. North Korea made them compete each other. North Korea doesn't trust China. Kim Jung Il has said so to me before.  

[Papa Is#155(2017/8/18)]

"Lost 25 Years" in Japan and "Blah Blah Blah " in Korea

A serious thing I was thinking about was ‘frugality’, which is quite related to the places I am going to visit in Japan. Japan had gone through a very long depression, which nowadays is called ‘Lost 25 Years’. The long depression changed everything from trivial spending patterns to the pursuits people have in their life. Japanese drive smaller cars to cut spending on transportation than the ones typical Koreans drive even though real GDP per capita of Japan is about 1.5 times higher than Korea. Japanese pursue more environmental friendly lifestyles adopting stricter practices of recycling than Koreans do.

Korea also has been getting through a long depressive economy since the financial crisis of 2008 and it seems that it won’t end soon. It has been 10 years. But except for some imported terms such as ‘New Normal’, which was suggested to describe long and unending depressive economic situation throughout the world, no specific term to clearly depict the last 10 year economic downturn of Korea was not coined yet.

There could be various reasons for that, but one of them seems to be quite cultural. Professor Yoo Hong Jun who is renowned for his series of field trip books of Korean cultural heritagestitled ‘My Diaries for Field Trips of Cultural Heritages(나의 문화유산 답사기)) pointed out the strength of Japanese to conceptualize various kinds of phenomena. When there is an array of phenomena seen clearly and distinctively, Japanese tend to invent a simple but clear term which represents those serial and related phenomena. Simply speaking, they like to define things (I am still figuring out the origin of their favor of defining).

Of course, there are pros and cons for defining. It has pros in terms of that people can be stimulated swiftly to change their cognitive dull understanding of the situation to the sharp one. After the term of ‘Lost 10 Years’ was recognized and used nationwide, most people in Japan changed their cognitive understanding of the economic situation and even their own individual economic stance for the future. They tried to save more money to prepare for the unpromising future. Although no one can’t say Japanese economy has escaped from the depression, overall Japanese have more savings than Koreans and are better positioned to retire more smoothly. How about Korea? The most risky factor that could pull the Korea economy to the ground is the dangerously high debt level of individuals. The total amount of household debt has reached 1,400 trillion won and the saving rate has been quite low. But Koreans are still maintaining their spending patterns they made when the economy was booming. They change their cars more frequently(it got slow down recently). They even prefer bigger and more luxurious cars. They still buy apartments without deep consideration over the perspective of financial risks such as slow or abrupt prices falling. What if a term which describes the last 10 years was introduced?

Cons can be suggested. The origin for the cons is the nature of simplicity of a term. A term makes a series of phemonema recognized clearly, but it doesn’t explain the phemonema 100%. Surely, the overall economic situation of the Japanese economy has been in or closer to depression, but there were upturns shown. Moreover, for the 25 years, Japansese got through harsh structural change from manufacturing based one to manufacturing and service integratively combined one. The competitiveness of the IoT was the result of the industrial structural change. However, the ‘Lost’ in the term ignores those positive aspects of the term of '25 years' and emphasizes only negative ones.

Then, is it necessary for Korea to have a term to describe the last 10 years’ economic flow? I would say yes. The last two administrations have reiterated the downturn of the world economy after 2008 financial crisis, and shed their mal-practices. Moreover, they directly and indirectly oppressed the civil movement to evaluate their economic policies and consequences politicizing it as a trial to bother the administrations’ sincere practice. The process to get the era a name is the one that gives Koreans a critical opportunity to figure out what happened for the last 10 years as a big pattern and find a way to get out the trap we think we have been stuck in. Let’s define it!

Crazy for Japan(일본열광,日本熱狂)

'

 'Crazy for Japan'(일본열광、日本熱狂）is the book which has kept me buying flight tickets for Japan.  Whenever I feel curious over questions such as why Japanese behave overly(?) humble or why the streets in Kyoto is clean enough say that they are sterilized, I open the book and find clues.  Clues on the book are based on 'Cultural Psychology' which I think is still quite a new thing in Korea. The author, Kim Jung Woon(김정운), studied cultural psychology in Germany and got a doctoral degree (when 'Kim Jung Woon' is googled in Hangul, a member of Super Junior comes out and I guess that in English pronunciation his name sounds quite like the name of the leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Un(김정은)). He claimed that he is the first Korean who majored in cultural psychology and received the degree related to it.

 I enjoyed his books including 'Crazy for Japan.' I thought he is quite stylish as a Korean scholar (even as a middle-aged man) and  has a sort of  freedom spirit inside. More than anything, his books have given me chances to  check and think more deeply over what I have as my own frames of thoughts. It was the same with Japan and Japanese people. His cultural psychology approaches to the Japanese behavioral patterns and social phenomena are quite intriguing and logic considering that he overcame typical Korean authors' approaches of simply comparing Japanese cultures with Korean ones. Most of all, he is creative enough to treat questions that we think are trivial and not worth raising such as;

Why  the girl characters in Manga or Anime show thier white panty slightly

Why there are so many 'Love Hotels' in spite of the fact that Japanese population has sex the least frequently in the world

Why Japanese say "daizyoubudesuka(大丈夫ですか)?" even in the situation that an old grandma slipped and fell down(daizyoubu(大丈夫) means a fit and brave man)

Why Japanese men pretend to hide thier penis with thier towels or sometimes  thier hands even though they don't actually hide it

Why Japanese movies about adultery essentially show trains

Why Japanese men are so obssessed with the sizes of ladies' breasts

Why Japanese Ryokan(旅館) arrange blankets and pillows on the floor in advance for thier customers

Why Japanese books are written to be read not from right to left but from top to bottom

I was curious about most questions above, too. I wanted to overcome the dichotomous thinking over Japan and its people, which I guess is still wide spread in Korea.

Titles: Japan exists(left) and Japan doesn't exist

In the Prologue of the book, Dr. Kim says that Koreans just look down on(or ignore) Japan while Chinese dislike them. He manifests like this.

"Disliking and looking down (or ignoring) are completely different from each other considering the cognition linked to them. Dislike includes recognition of the reality despite having negative emotions to the object(like Japan). However, looking down is denying recognizing the reality. It is kind of distortion of cognitive recognition accompanied by hostile emotion, which leads to serious problems. One of the problems is that it prevents seeing genuine yourself as well." 

He points out the collective obsession to dichotomous thinking and wide-spread attitude of looking down on Japan and Japanese people by Korean population and says those kind of things are not helpful for Korea and its people at all, which I agree. 

I resumed to read his books before the travel and have followed some of the things he did. He says that he could look more intelligent and sexy, when he was reading books in Korean, Japanese, English, and German on the flight. I read books in Korean, Japanese, and English on the flight coming back to Korea( I didn't learn German yet, but am cosidering of learning it because I felt doing four would do better than doing three). I stayed in Japan about a month in order to get my own answers over questions like why Japanese culture looks so unique and attractive to foreign, especially Western population and so on. 'Crazy for Japan' was useful for getting more sophisticated answers. And I am still crazy for Japan!