Will Miss #385 - (relative) economic parity

I've said before that Japan conducts a sort of "soft socialism", but it's not necessarily rooted in the redistribution of wealth. There is, however, relative economic parity in Japan with a large middle class, few rich people, and few poor people. This is accomplished by not offering presidents and CEOs obscenely lavish salaries and keeping the bottom income bracket a little further from the

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Won't Miss #297 - discussions become competition

Do you know what never happened to me in the U.S. when I made a critical statement about a political, social or economic situation? No one ever said that it was okay that America was like that because it was worse in Japan. Do you know what happens 90% of the time that I make a critical statement about political, social or economic issues in Japan? Someone (who has never lived in the U.S.) says

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Won't Miss #172 - love/hate relationship with Korea

A local shop sells calendars featuring Korean idols.Japan has had a long history of difficulties with Korea and the level of pettiness that is sometimes displayed in the media as a result of their troubled international relationship is often painful. The Japanese media criticize tiny things like the "uncivilized way" Koreans mix all of the ingredients of a dish into the rice so that all of the

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