The Truth Hurts

For quite some time now, I have been a Japan enthusiast. I come home and I tell people, "Japan is great!" I write on this blog, "Japan is so much better than the US!" And in many ways, I completely believe this. Even coming back to the US for awhile and eating the food, which is half the price of food in Japan (except tofu), and driving the cars on big wide roads where there are no mountains to block the view, I am glad that I will go back to Japan. Because I like living there.

However, in my time on vacation, I thought I'd do some reading about Japan that I don't get to do so often in Japan. So I went to the library and checked out some books about the history, culture, and society of Japan, just to see what other people were saying about it.

And I found this book - Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan, by Alex Kerr. Mr. Kerr is a well known author on Japan, and I thought he'd come out with a new book on old stories or something. But no. This is truth. This is mind-boggling, fear-inducing truth. I am almost scared to return to Japan. Why?

Japan cements in rivers and builds dams because they need to use money.
Japan hasn't updated their toxic waste policy since the 1960's.
Japan's banks are bankrupt, but in order to save face, they stay open.
Japan's nuclear power plants have safety procedures that involve people looking through windows to see if everything is "ok."
And there's so much more...

I thought the US was worse than Japan.
Everyone thinks that Japan is on top of technology.
I think we might have all been fooled.

That being said, I still like living in Japan. I just think I'll be buying bottled water, instead of drinking out of the tap from now on. And not living near a nuclear power plant.