The effects of covid on Tokyo are minor compared to the U.S. Their schools were not impacted; education is far more important to the Japanese.
Working from home on computers and Zoom was anticipated. The Japanese firm where I was the key partner (Dynax) did the research on distance working in the mid-1990s. The clients were Mitsubishi and Toshiba.
Only based on appearances in Tokyo, it looks like babies and strollers are everywhere. My sources give credit to unlimited free child care and free education at very good schools.
Two interesting new businesses. Vape shops and second-hand handbag shops.
Vape technology comes from China and I’m told there is something new every month. The American government has put vaping nearly out of business. We’re Puritans who act purely out of religious conviction. But we’re missing an interesting global business which we have dominated for a century. The coffee shops are all responding with two separate smoking rooms. One for tobacco-based products and another for vapes.
The second-hand handbags is a fascinating business. First, remember the richest man in the world makes his money in fashion handbags. It's a big global money maker. Second, Japan, to create real equity, and avoid social envy, has for centuries provided the poor with cheap versions of what the rich have. Cotton purses for one, silk for the other.
Foreign relations. I find many of my friends in the Japanese Foreign Office saying Japan has to have its own nukes. The American nuclear umbrella no longer works with the American global suzerainty gone and a corrupt senile president in office. When Israel is forced to bomb Iran that will be a sign that the Japanese have to be prepared to act alone.
I congratulated one of my longtime friends on her most unusual contribution to society. In the fifty years I’ve been coming to Japan I have seen a stunning change in clothing. She played a role in that with many art and fashion shows, galleries and her close relations to Issey Miyaki. The Japanese have always been cleaner and neater than any other people but they are now pure fashion. Everyone.
My female partner and I sat in a coffee shop for over an hour just watching the passing fashion show. Colorful, gorgeous fabrics and tailoring, elegant choice of separate pieces including bags, hair and accessories. But don’t be surprised by the common athletic shoes and weird socks. A’la Helen Mirren. One of our Tokyo friends got recognition from the Emperor for her lifetime achievements in art, fashion and design. It is visible everywhere.
Taxis in Tokyo now use a special model from Toyota. Large interior with space for baggage in front and very easy access.
I don’t want to go home. In Japan, everything works. In San Francisco nothing works and everything is getting worse. Recently a security guard shot a black thief who attacked him and the DA who was recently elected by the outraged S.F. Asian electorate refused to charge the guard with murder. The black criminal underclass went on full protest mode in response.
San Francisco needs the vigilantes we once had and another 1906 earthquake to start over again.
I would stay in Tokyo if it didn’t mean leaving my friends and a large family behind.