Just what Japan Needs more Public Works projects!

[dimwit]

Ten ideal public works projects

Chairman and chief executive officer of Ito-Yokado Co Toshifumi Suzuki, writer Yo Mizuki, and University of Tokyo Professor Ryuichiro Matsubara discuss their hopes for government spending in "Ten Ideal Public Works Projects" (Bungei Shunju)....

Other proposals include efforts to: unearth new tourism resources; increase the public's peace of mind by building more police boxes; respond to the declining birthrate by training more pediatricians; create programs for Japanese-language training for foreigners, both in Japan and overseas; develop human resources with the goal of boosting the competitiveness of the anime (animated film) industry; reform a pyramidal educational structure that places the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law at the pinnacle and target investment in education at individual students; move power lines and highways underground; and develop alternative forms of energy. (Foreign Press Center)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=kuchikomi&id=328

Other than trying fathom how pediatricians or anime are 'public works', the article give a insight into how intellectually bankrupt the best and the brightest are.

[yakinoumiso]

Other proposals include efforts to: unearth new tourism resources]

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=kuchikomi&id=328

Other than trying fathom how pediatricians or anime are 'public works', the article give a insight into how intellectually bankrupt the best and the brightest are.

Well, we can also wonder what those 'public works' pediatricians are going to do to actually boost the birth-rate. Sounds like that's one problem that needs a bit more of an..uhh..hands-on solution.

And, after watching some guy getting beaten to within an inch of his life by four other men, about 10 meters in direct sight of a Koban, I'm pretty sure that building more Kobans is not going to solve anything. Last night, the beating was at a JR station, with two JR employees and about 10 people just standing with their thumbs up their arses watching. The f-n kopper in the Koban was told and did just nothing...Worthless pieces of crap. (Never mind the fact that after being told that the cops weren't going to interfere, I decided against getting my teeth kicked in too...and I'm pretty damned disapointed in myself.)

[plaid_knight]

; develop human resources with the goal of boosting the competitiveness of the anime (animated film) industry;

If it doesn't involve concrete, it's all good.

[dingosatemybaby]

[i]]

If it doesn't involve concrete, it's all good.

Ah, but it does. EVERY public works project involves concrete in Japan.

[mas]

Ah, but it does. EVERY public works project involves concrete in Japan.

And people wonder why I'd like to be a civil engineer in Japan...

[Charles]

Yeah, I'll tell you a good story about how these public works projects go, I read this a long time ago in The Art Newspaper from London.

During the bubble years, there were a series of expensive art purchases, like Van Gogh's "Irises," trillions of Yen went into acquiring huge private art collections. Of course the Japanese government decided to get into the act. They embarked upon an ambitious project to build public museums, with a substantial endowment to acquire new artworks from across the world, to bring world culture even to the remotest prefectures in Japan.
Well of course the bubble burst. And of course cost overruns depleted the funding of the projects. They couldn't just leave the buildings half finished, so the museums were completed, leaving virtually no funding to acquire artworks to put IN the museums.
Some of the new museums never opened. Other museums begged for public funds to buy hand-made copies of famous artworks from the museums of Europe. So these elaborate new museums don't actually contain ANY original artworks.
So the Japanese government tried to take one more crack at getting this lame project off the ground. Major artworks from the bubble-era collections were being auctioned off in an attempt to recoup their losses in the post-bubble economy. Most artworks were sold at major losses. But many artworks remained in private collector's vaults, unseen by the public, art curators worried that these works would deteriorate and be damaged unless they were cared for by professionals in a museum. So the government passed a law that any collector who would consent to a permanent loan of their artworks to museums would receive a tax break and the government would pay for insurance on the artworks and pay for any maintenance expenses to keep the work in good condition.
Well of course that didn't work either. Nobody took advantage of the new law. So the museums still sit basically empty. New "emergent" artists could easily fill the museums with new works, but that's not good enough for a government projects, they want brand-name art, or nothing. So they get nothing.

[cstaylor]

I decided against getting my teeth kicked in too...and I'm pretty damned disapointed in myself.

Don't be. Do you think that guy would have come to your aid? If you had interefered successfully, you'd probably be the guy in the klink.

Let the locals pound each other senseless.

[Buraku]

Horie and LDP boosters have it coming
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20060201gc.html
The opposition parties are attacking on two fronts -- the confusion over U.S. beef exports and the approvals given to falsified data for construction projects. Both are seen as failures due to Koizumi's policy of entrusting important government responsibility to private organizations

took 39 years for the Japan Government to admit it made a mistake.
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12401

Yoshiteru Murosaki: Industry pros must ensure buildings are safe
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200602020110.html