Thirty Years Later the U.S. And Japan Became Poorer, Weaker (Part 1)

TOKYO, July 7, 2020—Japan has become a much better country to live now, as I predicted 30 years ago,’ the old man told me the other day.
‘First of all, the population has shrunk quite a bit, so we don’t have to compete aggressively anymore: Tokyo has shrunk to a one-million population city, or one-tenth of 30 years ago and to the same population of the Edo period (approximately 300 years ago),
‘Look, traffic is smooth and the air is clean! Thanks to the relocation of the capital to Sendai, young people have moved out of Tokyo. So the noisy motorcycles and that strange music are gone. The only noise that I hear are karaoke bars and pachinko parlors. The Japanese society has changed dramatically but you know the Japanese love pachinko and karaoke. All foreign things have disappeared from our land. Nobody has smart phones now,
‘Remember Ichiro? He was a pro ball hero in both Japan and the U.S. 30 years ago. Ball games had been popular until the end of the Heisei era (2019). Over time, the teams (previously 12 altogether) had doubled to 12 Central and 12 Pacific league teams. That was way too many, and as a result, player quality was compromised and all competent players moved to the U.S. , so the Japanese leagues were left with lousy players only and the people lost interest in ball games…,
‘Soccer? The last time the Japanese national team played until the final was when Japan and South Korea co-hosted the world cup (in 2002). Since then, Japanese teams have not lasted to the finals, and that’s not surprising since Japanese players cannot score. The last major game was when Japan fought against Nepal and lost the game zero to 5 and dropped of the Asian cup. Of course, people lost interest in soccer too,
‘Soccer stadiums have become housing display grounds and kids are playing empty-can kicking games on the rounds around the model houses. They look active and healthy. They are much better off than playing video games and going to ‘juku (after-school cram classes.’ They don’t have any bullying kids like 30 years ago,
‘Thirty years ago, the U.S. was bossing around the world and Japan was America’s yes man about anything, taking orders for everything from the U.S.: America was fighting war all over the world for what it said was for annihilating terrorism. You know the wars have critically damaged the American economy and the American unemployment rate now is 50 percent! So it’s not surprising that American people are going to China or India for work!,
‘But you know the good thing is that the world has regained peace since the U.S. has become a poor country. Okinawa is a perfect example: It is now the largest Japanese resort. It’s flooded with Asian tourists. 30 years ago, there were many American military bases and aircraft often crashed or dropped debris to Okinawa’s residential areas. Japan also owned a military back then called the self-defense force, but it was really a military. It went to Iraq with ammos. Why? Because Iraq and America was fighting a war and Japan was ordered to follow the Americans
‘Who am I? How old I am? I’m a neighborhood story teller. I’ll be 105 this year (2034).

(More in Part II)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMVYJug8pA&t=1446s