I Wonder How I Can Get Drunk Salarymen Into This Story

[Mulboyne]

Huffpo: Gambling in Japan

...When I lived in Japan in the late 1990s, it wasn't uncommon late at night to come upon office workers passed out on the street, vomiting in alleyways, or being carried home by their equally inebriated colleagues. Excessive drinking after work was part of the salaryman culture. Indeed, it could be awkward for a businessman to demur from such rituals. When such behavior becomes the norm, then engaging in risky activities becomes just another way of conforming.

Of course, it's only a sector of Japanese society that drinks to excess. Just as it's only a sector of the society that constructs nuclear plants on active fault lines, builds up a powerful and potentially aggressive military machine in a region that is still deeply suspicious of how Japan uses its power, and deregulates the economy to create a kind of pachinko capitalism that rewards the few and impoverishes the many. In this sense, an oligarchy of gamblers holds sway over the majority of cautious Japanese...

[omae mona]

Huffpo: Gambling in Japan

I have rewritten that article. Here's the condensed version:

I lived in Japan. Please note that I am able to write up anecdotes about fugu, kabuki, pachinko, and salarymen with ease. I lived in Japan. I have no background in science, nuclear power, engineering, economics, or politics. But I know how all of those should be done properly, and believe me, they're doing it all wrong. I know, because I lived in Japan. Did I mention I lived in Japan?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I have rewritten that article. Here's the condensed version:

This one time at band camp ....

[Coligny]

I have rewritten that article. Here's the condensed version:

You said 'rape' twice...

ooops... wrong meme... my bad...

[matsuki]

I lived in Japan

LOL, after reading many articles like this, I think the rule is anyone that needs to mention this more than once in any explanation is reaching hard for nonexistent credibility.

/captain obvious

[Greji]

And of course, he mentions later in the article:

".....When I lived in Japan in the late 1990s, it wasn't uncommon late at night to come upon office workers passed out on the street, vomiting in alleyways, or being carried home by their equally inebriated colleagues. Excessive drinking after work was part of the salaryman culture. Indeed, it could be awkward for a businessman to demur from such rituals. When such behavior becomes the norm, then engaging in risky activities becomes just another way of conforming....."

He was able to spot them from the glow they got from gambling on risky and dangerous nuclear power plants. He didn't mention that he was going through the pockets of the drunks to make ends meet while, if I haven't mentioned before, he lived in Japan.

[Iraira]

He was able to spot them from the glow they got from gambling on risky and dangerous nuclear power plants. He didn't mention that he was going through the pockets of the drunks to make ends meet while, if I haven't mentioned before, he lived in Japan.

Don't talk shit about his powers of observation, he lived in Japan!

[Mulboyne]

I think the writer has a point about failings in the institutional calculation of risk in Japan. This shows up in the way that cost-benefit analyses are rarely conducted for public spending projects. I've argued before elsewhere that maintenance schedules are often inadequate in Japan. The country grew so quickly that old equipment and machinery was usually junked before it began to play up. After the bubble burst, it stayed in use a lot longer and yet maintenance schedules were sometimes even reduced to cut down on costs.

So there is a broader argument to make but it has little or nothing to do with fugu, drunk salarymen or the 80s asset bubble.

[omae mona]

To be totally fair, he only explicitly said he lived in Japan once in the article, and once in the followup comments. But as he creates ridiculous analogy after ridiculous analogy, he's virtually screaming "look at all these gems of information only a rare ex-resident of Japan such as myself could bring to you". Like that "deru kugi wa utareru" thing, an ancient secret known only to those who have spent years immersing themselves in Japanese culture. Or people who have ever logged onto that Intarweb thingy (Google only has like 44,000 search results for the romanized version).

By an amazing coincidence, I found the written notes he took while writing this article. Transcribed for your convenience.

Hmm. I am sure those TEPCO guys did something wrong and I'd like to write about it. But I don't know anything about nuclear power or have any access to any facts. OK, let me draw on some general themes I learned from when I lived in Japan, instead of dwelling on facts. Let's think. OK, got it. All Japanese people are conformists (that's why they all hated me, when I lived in Japan). So whatever TEPCO did wrong must have been due to a NATIONAL personality trait. Hmm, what kind of national personal trait is in Japan? I think I noticed they are polite! Aha! The nuclear meltdown was because they are too polite! Wait, no, that's not going to work. Fuck. Let's think, what else? Oh, fuck, I have no idea. Let's just use an analogy instead. Ah, what's that game called again, pa, pa, oh yeah, pachinko. Lots of them play that. I saw it when I lived in Japan. I think I remember hearing it is some kind of gambling. Gambling.. yeah, that could be the issue. "Nuclear power is like pachinko". Let's go with that. Wait, how can I spice this up a bit so it appeals more to the readers of this blog? They don't know what the fuck pachinko is since they never lived in Japan. Income inequality.. that gets everybody wound up. We've got to get that in there somehow. Is there a problem with income inequality in Japan? Fuck if I know, but let's just make an analogy! Think, think, think, how does pachinko create income inequality? OK, some people win, and some people lose. Hey, maybe some people win BIG and some people lose BIG. What if it were just a few pachinko superstars that are making tens millions of dollars annually, while the masses of regular Japanese citizens are just helpless addicts, lured in by the beautiful lights and music, giving up their life savings, living in squalor. In fact, yeah, I saw those small apartments when I lived in Japan. That must be how pachinko works, right? OK. Bang. Got it. There's the analogy. This is a "Pachinko Capitalism" economy. And that's why there's radioactive shit all over the place. I have totally tied it together. Holy fuck, I am going to get a fucking Pulitzer for coining this term.

[cstaylor]

He'd only get the pulitzer if he could work vending machines selling soiled schoolgirl undies in there too.

[Doctor Stop]

And don't forget the Hello Kitty vibrators.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

He'd only get the pulitzer if he could work vending machines selling soiled schoolgirl undies in there too.

I reckon anyone who writes about those should get a Pulitzer...

[Greji]

He'd only get the pulitzer if he could work vending machines selling soiled schoolgirl undies in there too.

He could only write about that if he lived in Japan. Damn! Getting a stiffy again.....