東京物語 A new Abenomics target could be : the "Love Society Arrow" ?

  Katsuhiko Fujimori

東京物語 Tokyo stories You know how I like Japan and the people here, but how unfortunate it is to see that Japanese seem to seal their eyes only on their smartphones and forget to watch people near by them in subway, office, cafes, sea side, mountain slopes… Impact is a withdrawal from the society? Almost true. But not necessary. There are also social and psychological reasons to this isolation on the rise. An other consequence is late marriage, no kids. Other impact: the aged society and lonely household with age parents abandoned from their kids. 

Why don't we get happy here to marry and live in family and get older with our beloved ones? The decrease of married couples living with aged parents and extended longevity, the number of single-person households in Japan is expected to reach 18.72 million in 2030, 36.5% of all the households!!  Now for the hard talk in particular, 1 out of 5 men in their 50s and 60s are expected to live alone in 2030. As the super single society approaches, solutions to such issues as social isolation and poverty are being sought out. 

 Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story

Fascinating briefing at the FPCJ Foreign Press center Japan yesterday with Mr. Katsuhiko Fujimori, Mizuho Information Research Institute, Inc., Chief Research Associate. My question to Fujimori san was related to the iconic movie Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story and what has Japan done in the last 50 years, since Tokyo Monogatari, to challenge the trend of  what can simply be sadness and loneliness of Japanese society. Can Abe and dynamic Tokyo Governor Masuzoe deliver or... is it just communication bla bla? 

Maybe a new policy for the Abenomics could be : the "Love Society Arrow!" 

Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story