Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts
2017-07-29
How I Came to Love Watching Movies
2017-06-10
A Long Road to Publishing a Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
If you're one of those people who can publish articles while in a Ph.D. program; can balance writing and teaching skillfully; mostly get "publish with minor revisions" as a submission response; or can publish more than one article a year, what I write below may come as a shock to you. Or appalling. I don't care. I'm extremely thankful for this publication, and I know I couldn't have done it without help from the people around me every step of the way.
This post is for anyone out there who has ever felt like it's damn near impossible to get a publication out. I am here to tell you: It can be done; it just might take a really, really long time.
2017-04-09
Yes I Watched the New Shinkai Movie and No I Will Not Recommend It to You
This past Monday I had the chance to watch the anime film Your Name (2016) by SHINKAI Makoto. Some of my students had seen it at its world premiere at Anime Expo 2016, so needless to say, I was quite late to the naming party.
I had, to be honest, not been terribly enthusiastic about watching this film. I've watched a good number of Shinkai's other works (that is to say, all of his feature films), and I am very public about the fact that I am not a huge fan of them. I had a suspicion that I was not going to feel much different about this new one either.
But of course, as a professional, I knew I couldn't hold my head up high in class if I didn't at least give it a chance. And give it a chance, I did. Twice, in fact. And after my two viewings, I think I feel much more comfortable saying to the world, "I told you so."
Let me start with the positives. The artwork in Your Name is beautiful. And by "artwork," I'm mostly talking about the backdrops and sceneries. But Shinkai has always been good at that—his 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) and The Garden of Words (2013) are so lovely that you feel like you can just step into the screen. The improvement is more with the characters: whereas the characters from his debut feature film Voices of a Distant Star (2002) and the more recent Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) look like they are positively lopsided or from a '90s (or even '80s) anime (or both), the characters in Your Name actually look like contemporary anime characters. The problem with that, though, is that they look like they stepped out of a HOSODA Mamoru film and into this new Shinkai film. Hey man, if you can't maintain integrity in the way your characters look (like the way MIYAZAKI Hayao can), then stick with the lopsided peeps. (In fact, I would argue that the characters in The Garden of Words look both refreshing and fitting for the mood of the story—I'm not sure why he couldn't employ that style again here.)
The other positive is the four songs by RADWIMPS included in the soundtrack. While it took me a while to get into them, after a few listens, I think I really like all of them. I can't say the same for the English versions (I don't care how fluent the lead singer is, I'm not backing down about this or the Utada English album), but the Japanese songs are quite lovely.
The negatives, however, far outweigh the positives for me. Even the soundtrack—beyond the four songs—seems ordinary and not particularly evocative of the mood that, I assume, I'm supposed to get from the story, given the kinds of reviews (er, headlines) I've been reading of the film. The score by NODA Yōjirō of RADWIMPS doesn't hold a candle to music by folks like TAKAGI Masakatsu (who's done music for Hosoda's Wolf Children and the documentary Kingdom of Dreams and Madness about Studio Ghibli), and it just about disintegrates when listened to after HISAISHI Joe's still-classic works for some of Miyazaki's films. I mean, stuff by Takagi makes you want to fucking DANCE. That stuff is genius.
And the story. Oh, the story. I'm not unsatisfied just by the fact that the story, like most of Shinkai's works, revolves around a vacuous romance. I'm not unsatisfied just by the fact that there's absolutely no good reason why the two protagonists should be in love with each other. I'm more upset by the fact that the story of Your Name is basically the story of every other Shinkai film that's ever been released. If you listen to the voiceover narration from The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), you'll think you were listening to the beginning/middle/end of Your Name. And just as I tell my students, you can't submit the same work twice and get credit for it both times.
I've read many, many manga works about body swaps that are so much more compelling than this one. If you want to watch an anime film about time travel that will make you weep until you think you've turned into a raisin (and where the emotions of the protagonist make so much sense that it pains you), go rent Hosoda's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. If you want to hear really good songs that you can sing along to while bawling at the same time, you can probably try the OKU Hanako songs from the same film. It's all been done before, and better. Sometimes by Shinkai himself (though in that case, they weren't necessarily better, they were probably about the same quality). Anime viewers, please, please explain to me why people are giving Your Name such positive reviews. I just... I just...
I've read magazine articles that pick up on the feelings of Mitsuha, who feels trapped in her non-urban hometown and feels strongly the desire to move to Tokyo for university and work. That, I can understand, might be a poignant element within the story. But that seems not to be a throughline at all, replaced by the age-old, fairy tale quest to find "the boy". I wished I could have seen more in terms of Mitsuha's longing for a maternal figure, or even just for a cool female senpai that she could learn from, given the loss of her own mother and her developing relationship with Okudera Senpai when she is living life as Taki in Tokyo. But those elements of absent parents (which also feature in 5 Centimeters, Garden, etc.) are so underemphasized, even when they seem to form such a large part of the characters' psychological states. Distance, loneliness, desire, longing, love—those are all beautiful and crucial elements of Shinkai's stories. But can you really produce story after story based on just that? Can you not give us something more?? Do you take us for fools, who only think about finding (or being apart from) our heteronormative partners in a melodramatic scene in outerspace, surrounded by comets and meteors?!?!
Please, Shinkai. I am quite gleeful about the fact that the Japanese Academy Film Prize for Best Animation of the Year went to KATABUCHI Sunao's In This Corner of the World for 2016. I also do not care how many box office records your film has broken. Every time I meet people who rave about how good Your Name is, I will understand that we have our differences, and that it is not my place to tell them how limited their worldview is. Nope, I shall not do that. But as someone who's lucky enough to watch anime for six hours every weekday, I can confidently say: I AM ON TO YOU. I know your tricks, and as long as I am living, I will not let others fall for your sneaky, self-serving ways. There is so much more to life and cultural texts than simply the boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl shtick you keep playing. And one day, the world will agree with me.
[Photo courtesy of Nan-Cheng Tsai on Flickr. Thank you!]
2015-04-16
Philosopher's Walk
Right now before me lies a different kind of Philosopher's Walk—one paved with deadline after deadline. Buuuut, last weekend I got through one major one, and I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I can chillax for the next couple of days.
So today and tomorrow I am getting myself organized and preparing my lesson plans. Having students—like, warm bodies in the room—is an amazing feeling...I just hope that I didn't piss them off to the point of preventing them from registering. Actually...now that I think about it, that's entirely possible...
Here's to a steadily warming Spring Semester!
2015-02-23
夜喫茶 #7: 右近
お任せコースの「うさぎ」を頂き、食前酒から始め、前菜盛り合わせ、お造り、鍋料理等々。美味しいお料理でお腹が一杯になりました。
問題は、私の和食に関する知識の無さ。今の季節は、この魚が旬なの？このお料理には、この器なの？何故この食材は、この調理の仕方なの？
てんで分からん事についてウッチャウッチャ言えないので、何しろ美味しかったと言う事だけをご報告しようと思いました。チャンチャン。
さて、「名古屋で食べたいお店」の記事からほぼ一ヶ月。前回以来リストに追加されたお店をご紹介します。（リンクは全て食べログです。順番は特にありません。）
と言う感じです。まだまだ時間はあります。ん〜、朝ご飯食べたばっかなのに、また腹が減って来た・・・
2015-02-06
Japan is Licca-fying. (Oh, stop. It's the name of a toy.)
OK, so the ad had Licca dolls on it. Or, to be precise, a Licca doll and her...boyfriend (or husband?) doll, whatever his name is. [Disclosure: Actually, at first I thought it was a Jenny doll, because all these dolls look the same to me. And to be honest, I thought "Licca" (リカ) was spelled "Rika", but oh, how ignorant I am.]
And I was like...oh. OH. O. M. G. The young people of Japan are turning into Licca dolls!!!
It's true, folks—or, at least, in my eyes, it's true. The more I looked at the ad, the more I felt like I was seeing merely doll versions of countless couples and young women and men that I had seen walking around in cities of Japan. People with brown hair. Huge eyes. Pale skin. Super skinny limbs.
According to Wikipedia, Licca dolls were developed in the '60s by Takara, with Jenny dolls following suit in the '80s. They both have their backstories (and wardrobes full of pretty clothes), but you can probably imagine the kinds of gender ideologies that have been packed into them over the years.
And of course, since they were manufactured as Japanese versions of Barbie dolls, there's also a particular racial element to that ideology as well. And these have taken on additional layers with globalization and media marketing that spews out all sorts of funny beauty ideals for people all over the place.
I felt more than slightly disturbed. There's nothing wrong with these things, really—dyed hair, makeup that makes your eyes look like those of manga characters. I mean, I think it'd be cool if I could actually learn how to use eyeliner. But...it's also kind of creepy, this whole...looking more and more like a plastic doll thing.
No no, that's not quite what I mean. There's nothing wrong with these things, really—when in ISOLATION. Dyed hair: fine. Makeup techniques that yield astounding before/after photos: fine. Skincare regimens that make your skin look clear, bright, and "white": fine. Plastic surgery of all types: fine. (Well...hmm.) But when taken all together, something about it just unsettles me. But it's also so real. Whoa.
Oh, just listen to me. I sound like such a naysayer. ::sigh:: It's cool, people. Don't mind me. Please carry on looking like the happy plastic couple in the picture. I'll just sit over here in a corner being weirded out...
[But actually, all this thinking about Licca dolls and Jenny dolls has reminded me of my experience with Barbie dolls—or, just one doll, to be precise. I am now itching to tell that story. Maybe next Friday.]
2015-02-04
The Privileged Traveler
And the other thing—I can only really talk about what it's like being Japanese, traveling abroad; or seeing how people in Japan react to tourists; or being American, and traveling abroad; or seeing how people in the United States react to tourists. So that's the position from which I'm writing.]
So, my "friend" recently visited Japan (just kidding, he really is a friend, no quotes necessary), and I got to do all sorts of touristy things that I hadn't done because, well, when you live in a city, sometimes you just don't make time for them.
During his visit he spent a part of his time exploring the city by himself, and since my friend doesn't speak Japanese, I asked him how it was for him getting around. He said that there were no problems, that he could order things in eateries, figure out maps and signs, and enjoy Nagoya even if he didn't speak the language.
This conversation and his trip in general got me thinking about those people who might be considered "travel savvy". My friend also travels a lot for work, so he might be a good example of such a savvy traveler. But I got this feeling that there was also something else going on.
When I say "travel savvy", I'm not talking so much about being able to book cheap flight tickets, find good but not-too-crowded lodgings, and pack five-days-worth of luggage into a small carry-on. I'm talking, instead, about that ability to navigate a city that you don't know, that speaks a language you don't know.
And if that's what we're talking about, I'm not so sure that it's because you're necessarily "travel savvy". It might have more to do with who you are, and what you have.
Because you see, I think that how "savvy" you are at getting around depends a lot on the color of your skin. If you're white, especially if you're visiting a country like Japan, I have a feeling that people around town will be a little bit nicer, a little bit more patient, than if you're not white. I have a feeling that it would be different if you were all sorts of other kinds of Asian, or black, or Middle Eastern, especially in a country like Japan.
I think that how "savvy" you are depends on the language you speak. If you speak English, there are probably a number of countries that you can get around in without encountering too many problems. I mean, just look—most of the major signs in large cities are now written in English (or at least in Romanization). If you're a visitor speaking English in Japan, store clerks will at least feel guilty because they think they should be able to respond to you, so they'll probably try a little harder to understand you (and forgive you for not speaking the language of that country).
But if you speak, say, a European language that isn't English, things will probably be a little different. Even comparing something like French with an Eastern European language that isn't identifiable for many, the level of accommodation will probably differ. And if you speak something that is clearly not what's spoken among pale-skinned people, the point at which people "give up" on you will probably come a lot sooner.
I think that how "savvy" you are depends on whether you're male or female, too. Not because men and women are inherently different, or because certain places are more welcoming or dangerous for one or the other—but because, in practice, it's probably a bit easier for men to be traveling than for women, especially when traveling alone. (I have to think about this a bit more—I'm not convinced by my own point, and I don't want to make assumptions about certain environments. It's just...a guess. And there are, of course, different perks to each positionality.)
I think that how "savvy" you are depends on how threatening you look to other people as well. You'll probably receive more welcome if you're small and attractive than if you're somewhat large and burly-looking. I mean, if people can't figure out whether you're safe for them or not, the situation gets a bit dicier.
And of course, I think that how "savvy" you are depends on the amount of privilege that is implied in you already getting to travel in the first place. Maybe it's not that you're "savvy", really, but that you're in a position where traveling is a part of what you (get to) do—and it's really got nothing to do with how practical and knowledgeable you are. And since money speaks volumes, people are probably a lot more accommodating to people who look like they are going to spend some money in their stores.
So the next time I hear someone described as "travel savvy", I'm going to have to wonder—really?? Is it really that you're savvy, or are people just accommodating you because of so many other factors?
Because I think it's probably the latter.
But who knows! I could be totally wrong. I'm curious to hear other thoughts, especially from people who actually do travel...
[The photo is of Nagoya's famous "golden dolphin" in front of the Kirin beer factory. Although...any idiot can see that that thing is no DOLPHIN...]
2015-01-26
和食、或いは、名古屋で食べたいお店の一覧
辻さんの本を読んでいると、もっともっと和食の事を知りたい、と思います。色々な物を見て、色々な物を食べたい。もっともっと「食」について勉強したい。もちろん、料理の練習もしたい。
そしてもう一つ思ったのは、色々なお店で食べてみたい、と言う事でした。できれば、今年は名古屋にある美味しいお店にできる限り行ってみたい。と言う訳で、名古屋で食べたいお店のリストを作って見ました。いくつかの理由（地理、予算、趣味、等）でとても偏ったリストになってしまいましたが、食べログの総合ランキングから言うと、Top 20 がこんな感じです。（リンクは全て食べログです。）
- 吉い
- 梶川
- 日本料理 馳惣
- とんかつあさくら
- ふじ原
- 浜源
- 焼き菓子 ルルー
- 川口屋
- セレスティ
- お料理 京柳
- トップフルーツ八百文
- 菓匠 花桔梗
- 味仙
- ブルーデル
- とんかつ 比呂野
- 勝利亭
- 沖縄の店 ちゅらやー
- mairo cafe
- 実濃忠
- チュウズデイオフ
こんなに沢山・・・さて、いくつ行けるかな？
2014-12-10
The Deception of "I Understand"
I've recently encountered several occasions on which to tell the story of how my family ended up immigrating to the States. [It goes like this: When my father was young he had the opportunity to be a visiting scholar at UCR. Our family spent a year in Riverside, and after we returned to Japan, my mother expressed to my father that she wanted to live and raise her kids in California. My father said, "OK".]
The common reaction to this story—from men and women, from Japanese and non-Japanese—is "I understand" (or some variant of it). As in, they understand my mother's desire to want to live and raise her two daughters in the United States rather than in Japan.
To which I often want to ask: What do you understand? Do you understand that life as a woman is hard in Japan? Do you understand that being a parent, as well as being a child, is hard in Japan? Do you understand that America presents liberation for such women and children?
Or maybe you understand that the United States is home to commendable gender equality. Maybe you understand that life for immigrants is easy and unproblematic in the States. Maybe you understand that moving across the Pacific Ocean solves all sorts of problems for people.
Or do you perhaps understand that it's easy for people to ask their spouses to give up their jobs—the only source of income for the family—so that they can move to a new country and build a life from scratch? Do you perhaps understand that men have it so much better than women in Japan but now all of a sudden they get to experience an even more enriching enlightenment that is the non-patriarchy in the United States? Do you perhaps understand that this decision was so obvious, so logical, so easy to make?
People, please. What can you possibly know or understand. And better yet, what can you possibly, outwardly, verbalize as something you know and understand? It's not better or worse living in one society or another, and it's not easy or difficult to choose one over the other, either. It just is. And it just is to different people in different ways, and that's perhaps the closest you can get to something you can understand.
I think it's great to want to learn what it's like, what it's not like. I think it's cool to get educated, so that you can ask thoughtful questions. But you understand? Understand what, really. Please, do tell me; I'm all ears.
2014-11-10
夜喫茶 #1: ペルル フェルクリン
それでですね、滅多に外食しない私ですが、タマ〜にどっかに立ち寄った時は、その記念としてここに記録を残しておきたいと思っております。
と言う訳で、『夜喫茶』シリーズ第一弾。先週の金曜日、川名の駅の近くのペルル フェルクリンに行ってきました。スイスチョコとフランス菓子のお店で、アパートと職場の間にあるので、いつか行ってみたいと思っていました。そうしたら７日は７周年記念との事で、オーダーが一割引！行かねば、の使命感でした。
注文したのはショコラショーとティラミス。（両方一遍に頼むかよ、普通・・・でも頼むんだな、甘党だから。）ショコラショーは死ぬ程美味しかった。毎日飲みたい。（死ぬけど、そんな事したら、多分。）ティラミスも美味しかったです、やや甘めだったけど。
でも・・・でもですね。もう何か特別なイベントがある日にお店には（特に初めてのお店には）行かないと決めました。だって・・・サービスがメッチャスローなんだもん。おそらく私はとてつもなく短気だからそう感じたんだと思いますが、レジの人達なんて・・・「ママゴトやってんじゃねーんだよっ！！！」と叫びたくなる程ゆったりとした感じでした、はい。
喫茶店では、確かにゆったりと時間を過ごしたいです。ドタバタと追い出されるのはイヤ。でも、ココアを作るのも、商品を包装するのも、会計をするのも、落ち着いて、それでもなおかつテキパキとする事はできる筈。お客様がくつろぐ為にも、お店の人はスムースに物事を進める。そんなサービスを私は好みます。
2014-10-13
「ぜいたくは敵だ！」
今の食べ放題の社会には分かりにくいかもしれないけど、やっぱり戦争って厳しい。（日本語って all caps ができないから残念。）ウチのばあちゃんは農家だったけど、ヤミで大根とかをマッチやら何やらに換えてたってよく聞きました。大変。
2014-09-29
上野千鶴子と林真理子と・・・
先日は遥洋子の『東大で上野千鶴子にケンカを学ぶ』も読んだ。著者の視点から書く「学者の世界」の説明は面白かったし、そして上野千鶴子（何故いつもフルネームなのだろう・・・）が著者に対してとる態度の説明も読んでいてとても嬉しかった。
私は上野千鶴子にも林真理子にも会った事がないし、会うより本を読む方が好むと思うけど、上野千鶴子は私が聞いている程悪い人ではないと思う。遥洋子にとっての上野千鶴子は、私にとっての大学院の恩師に似ている。きつい人かもしれないし、暖かい人では無いかもしれない。気難しかったり、「それはないんじゃないのっ？！」と思わせる様な事をしたり言ったりするかもしれない。でも、彼女は彼女の考え方を持っていて、それを主張できるだけの地位に行き着いたんだ。彼女だったら、私が彼女の本と林真理子の本を一緒に読む事を批判しないと思う。
2014-09-24
A Ph.D. Entrance Exam!
This is the thing I love whenever we have an event in our building. The organizers put up signs everywhere that say "Do not enter"...like, ENTER AND YOUR HEAD WILL EXPLODE. I love it.
Today our department is having entrance exams for our Ph.D. program. I had forgotten that we had such things as grad school entrance exams, even though my parents had talked about them before. (Specifically, my mother talked about how my father had wanted to get into the grad program for a particular department but had to go into a different department because he wasn't smart enough to pass...while my father sat there looking kind of awkward.)
Oh, entrance exams. I'm so glad I never had to take them. I'm sure I would've failed them anyway, seeing as how I don't study and my parents weren't ones to send us to cram school. And the only thing that saved me in the States was SAT II Writing...
2014-09-05
駅弁 ~ Station Meal-in-a-Box ~
The book was titled Ekiben Monogatari (『駅弁物語』, Stories of the Railway Boxed Meal) and published in 1979. Its author, Uriu Tadao (瓜生忠夫), was born in Taiwan in 1915 and worked later as a media critic while also writing about ekiben.
I admit I love ekiben—I get it every chance I get (unless I'm overladen with luggage), mostly when I take the shinkansen. I got one last at the beginning of August (pictured—though I threw away the wrapping and don't remember much about it, except it had something to do with being a light summer meal)!
The book was unexpectedly a great read, despite its moments of sexism. The concurrent rise of the ekiben along with that of the Japanese railway system, the relationship between ekiben and imperialism as the military purchased ekiben from vendors in exchange for supplying them with white rice (hot commodity during wartime), changing nature of trains (e.g., windows that passengers can't open) under modernization and the development of express trains and what it did to the economic structure of platform sales of ekiben... All really interesting and new to me.
In the book Uriu gives a recipe for making "Torimeshi" (「とりめし」), an ekiben he likes from Takasaki Station (高崎駅) in Gunma Prefecture (群馬県) in the Kantō region. Apparently he got the recipe from the (then?) owner of Budō-ya (葡萄屋) in Tokyo, a restaurant that specializes in chicken dishes and yakitori...and what do you know, they're still in business. I'm including a rough summary of the recipe below, just so I won't forget it.
The Meat Half of the Torimeshi Topping
400g ground chicken
8 T sake
4 T sugar
3 T soy sauce
Put meat into a pot, mix the sauce and pour over meat. Cook without stirring. When done, serve over half the rice in a bowl. (If you want to reheat, add sake or water.)
I love recipes like that. Now for
The Egg Half of the Torimeshi Topping
2 eggs
1 T sugar
Salt
Combine ingredients and pour into a pan with no oil. When it begins to cook, mix vigorously with chopsticks. Serve over the other half of the rice in a bowl.
He says torimeshi goes well with a simple chicken soup, made with ginger, garlic, salt, pepper...with a little bit of soy sauce, green onions, and some mitsuba (an herb, kind of like parsley or cilantro). Mmmmmm.
2014-09-01
お祭り
最初はアパートの掃除！家がキレイだと、気持ちがいいです。
それからコメダ珈琲店で読書。（ミルクコーヒーって何ですか？）
その次は大須観音へ行きました！（次回は昼間に行きたいです。）
大須観音駅の辺りは、着物のリサイクルショップが沢山ありました。嬉しい。
それから歩いて久屋大通へ。その日は偶々お祭りでした。ラッキー！
その後東急ハンズANNEXで買い物をしたら、その日は「ハンズメッセ」で大セール。またラッキー！
そこからまた歩いて、今度はビックカメラに。枕を購入しました。
は〜、疲れた。楽しかったけど、ちょっと歩きすぎた一日でした。
2014-08-29
"Real" "'American' 'Tacos'"
What happened was this: I was at the local grocery store, minding my own business, when I encountered a box of Old El Paso Taco Kit on the clearance shelf. I felt so bad! Poor little Taco Kit...no one wanted him, so they reduced his price and tried to cast him off...
And then I thought, wait a minute. I haven't had tacos in weeks! And since I haven't been able to find corn tortillas, maybe I can save this little guy AND satisfy my cravings at the same time!
Hence the lettuce (which, also, was on clearance (man, I love Japanese grocery stores)). And I bought chicken (ALSO on clearance...WTF) because I was craving fried chicken before I found the OEPTK. And then I went home to make myself some OEP Chicken Tacos. And you know what? The end product actually looked like real American tacos! Just like they sell at Taco Bell!!!
Which, mind you, was the first meal I had when I landed in the United States all those years ago.
2014-08-15
No Sex Please, At Least Not in the Way You Think
It’s been over two months since I filed my dissertation, and it’s about time I started getting some work done. It’s not like I don’t have things to do; I’ve plenty (preparing for my class, writing my conference paper, working on a journal article, etc.)—it’s just that I’m in that zone of…I don’t know. Laziness.
To add fuel to the fire of my laziness (is that...even possible?), my recent reading materials have come from the local city library rather than the university library. And you know just how much I love books I can rustle up at the city library...
My first batch of books included those on the practice of jijitsukon (事実婚), the assertion that Japan ought to "single-ize", and the background to the increasing number of men not marrying. (I justify the selection of these books by saying they're related to Japan, gender, and marriage (=research-related).)
Coupled with the YouTube video my friend forwarded me about "no sex in Japan", these texts made me think more seriously about the complicated nature of marriage, family, sex, and all sorts of other things that become tangled up in those practices. The rumor that Japanese people don't have sex is a total lie—of course they have sex, for crying out loud, just maybe not in the heteronormative, monogamous way that people normalize. The aging and dwindling population is tied up with changes in the marriage institution and costs/benefits of childbearing, of course, but they also have much to do with racist immigration policies and labor practices that economically disadvantage workers regardless of gender. And the social and psychological factors that make it difficult for people to establish longterm relationships while simultaneously making them feel like they have have do so—embedded in changing shapes of the family institution, these factors only complicate matters.
As my four-year-old niece would say, what a mess. While several solutions have been proposed and implemented already—make it more viable for women to stay in the workforce, make marriage less patriarchal and conservative (both politically and culturally), enable "foreigners" to make a decent living in Japan—I get this vague feeling that things aren't really...working. Gee whiz, maybe if I get my act together I can make this a future research project, to justify all the energy I'm spending thinking about it.
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