*to Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Κυνόσαργες

Friday 10 December 2010

'Yamato Damashi': 'you're doing it %$#@ing wrong!'

Yamato Damashii: means 'you're doing it %$#@ing wrong!'  When a strategy is not working in Japan the 'samurai spirit' demands that you do the wrong thing, MORE!


The squandering of talent is aptly symbolized in the throwing away of the Yamato in WWII, and a couple thousand of its crew.  Or you could read the insanity of the "Hagakure".  Or... Japanese economic and social policy since 'the Bubble'.  Or the fact that every Japanese person I have known with initiative and curiosity has gone to live or study overseasIf they came back they found that their society is set up to resist their experience, and force them into an uncreative role.  Did I mention Japan squanders the talents of an entire gender?

I know I am having a bad day, but Japan, you have a rising China, a collapsing Korean peninsula, a waning America (in the Pacific, at least), an ageing demographic time-bomb, a thirty-year recession, and you want to do the same thing... more?

Good luck with that.

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