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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam Citron who wrote (60225)	2/11/2002 9:42:12 AM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

>>Their civic virtues, low crime rates, education system, aesthetic sense, devotion to quality, social cohesiveness, cultural treasures etc. are unsurpassed. << I've heard mixed reviews on several of these points from people who actually live in Japan. (Some natives, some gaijin.) The ongoing economic malaise has badly hurt social cohesiveness. Companies and the government have not held up their end of the social contract, so the average person is questioning whether to hold up their end. The Japanese education system? Suffice to say that I wouldn't subject my kids to it (if I had kids). Rigid, often brutal, enforcement of social conformity. Good test scores, but at the expense of innovative or even independent thought. Even worse for girls, too. Cultural treasures and aesthetic sense? Compared to the US, maybe. Compared to Europe, well, don't ever say that to a European. Unlike Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan is inflicting the current problems on itself. That fact alone will make it much more difficult to take united and effective action. Katherine