午夜剧场

Something is wrong with Japan.

It all started with an interview I gave in December 2021 (published in the Nikkei on January 26, 2022). How does folklore studies respond to the questions that Japan is in trouble, the economy is stagnant, politics is in turmoil, and some even see it as a "second defeat"?

After that interview, I wrote this book at the invitation of Sakiko Nakagoshi, a young editor at Sakurasha. The main point is that there are causes for the current political and economic turmoil in Japan. Many people in Japan today are influenced by the mass media, which merely provides topics in the daily flow of events without verifying those causes, and this is endangering the country and society at its core. I clarify why Japanese people have such habits of thought and behavior from the perspective of folklore studies within history. As for specific measures, for Japan, which has few resources, to do its best, the most important things are the enhancement of school education and the development of human resources in each region! Increasing the number of people who are not deceived by sophistry by even one! That was the conclusion.

In 2011, I wrote a column titled "The 40-Year Cycle Theory of Modern and Contemporary Japan" (National Museum of Japanese History, Rekihaku, no. 196). Modern Japanese history is in a cycle of prosperity and collapse every 40 years, with the watershed at the 20th year.

The Meiji Restoration in 1868 was amidst financial collapse and unequal treaties; 1908 was after the victory in the Russo-Japanese War; 1948 was during the hell of the atomic bombings and defeat; 1988 was the peak of the bubble economy; and will 2028 be a disastrous Japan? Ruin occurs because generations who have forgotten the wisdom and hardships of their ancestors' generation lead the country through the interests of their own circles for personal gain, using authority that should be exercised publicly, while suffering from hereditary complacency or self-display. In 2008, which was at a watershed, Japan was in the midst of a vortex of political maneuvering and conflicting interests within a tripartite structure of the LDP-Komeito coalition, the Democratic Party, and the bureaucracy.

Japan is in danger if things continue this way. I am a 75-year-old man living a life where the crisis I was worried about is now becoming a reality. I wrote this book because I want to continue thinking about the possibility of a V-shaped recovery after 2028. This is a book I learned from the folklore studies and ethnic tradition studies of Kunio Yanagita and Shinobu Orikuchi.

Takanori Shintani

Sakurasha

292 pages, 1,980 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.