Today, after more than a dozen years of financial quagmire, Japan's economy seems to be on the mend. Koizumi, who has said he'll step down as prime minister when his term expires in September 2006, can claim some of the credit for Japan's slow climb out of recession. Since 2003, when the Nikkei plunged to a 20-year low at 7,608 and unemployment stood at 5.1%, the Nikkei has edged over 16,000 while unemployment hovers around 4.1%, the lowest it's been since 1998. Tokyo real estate prices, which had fallen as much as 70% from their 1991 peak, rose for the first time in 2004, spurring investors to return. Among Koizumi's greatest achievements are policies that have helped cut the amount of bad bank loans in half and the privatization of Japan's post office, which does far more than sell stamps and deliver mail. In addition, the projected privatization of a state-owned savings bank (with about a quarter of all financial assets held by Japanese individuals) will create the world's largest bank. The bank, which is also the country's largest provider of life insurance, is due for a complete change in ownership by 2017. A harder sell is the LDP's push to revise Japan's constitution outlawing war, thereby giving the nation's military a greater role in international security. Opponents argue that changing the constitution would raise fears tied to Japan's militaristic past, especially in China and South Korea where Japanese wartime aggression and occupation remain fresh. Other issues that continue to color Japan's diplomatic relations with its neighbors include disputes over island territorial claims and the prime minister's repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation's war dead but is viewed by critics as a symbol of Japanese militarism. These and many other issues face Japan as it strives for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
On the home front, a new set of problems faces today's generation. Homelessness is now so common that it no longer draws stares, even in the swank Ginza District. Crime, once almost unheard of, is on the rise, especially for theft. My former Tokyo landlady fears burglary so much that she refuses to open her doors to strangers. My friend's boyfriend's car was stolen from a parking lot, one of 119 luxury cars reported stolen in Tokyo in 2000. Lurid murders, though rare, garner media attention. In 2005, a spate of grisly crimes targeting schoolchildren horrified the nation. Certainly one of Japan's biggest concerns is its declining birth rate coupled with one of the fastest-aging populations in the world. About 17% of its population is 65 and older; by 2020, that number is expected to hit 25%. Meanwhile, the birth rate in Japan is at an all-time low of 1.29 per woman (the birth-control pill was legalized in 1999), prompting the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry to announce that a predicted shortage of future workers will severely strain the country's resources for pensions and healthcare.
For the short-term visitor to Japan, however, life in Japan appears much as it always has -- humming with energy, crowded beyond belief in its major cities, and filled with acts of human kindness. Crime, though undeniably on the increase, is still negligible when compared to levels in the United States, and Japan remains one of the safest countries in the world. Although it's true I am more careful than I was 15 years ago -- I guard my purse in crowded subways, I avoid parks after dark -- for Americans such precautions seem merely self-evident. But while I'm cautious about theft and purse-snatching, I never worry about personal safety when I'm in Japan. In fact, it never even crosses my mind. Violent crime -- especially against strangers -- remains virtually unheard of in Japan.
Certainly one unintended benefit of the recession is that Japan now offers something that would have been unthinkable during the spending-happy 1980s: bargains. The recession has spawned tony French restaurants serving value-conscious fixed-price lunches, secondhand clothing stores selling last year's designer wear, and 100-Yen discount shops conducting a brisk business. Whereas in the 1980s Japan was best known as an economic powerhouse, today it's known not only for Sony and Toyota but also as an exporter of cool pop culture, from anime and Hello Kitty to fashion and food.
