Sunday, June 12, 2011

*THIS* is what's wrong with this country...

Vote for this one?
That Japan is in a pretty bad shape at the moment should not come as any surprise. I'm not only talking about the obvious impact of the recent earthquake and disaster, even before that the Japanese economy has been in a pretty bad state of affairs with the national debt growing out of control.

The political parties are in a complete state of dissaray, and post-Koizumi it seems like it is impossible to have a prime minister stay in office for longer than a year... Post Prime Minister Koizumi, Japan has worked it's way through five prime ministers in as many years and now Kan has vaguely commited to step down from the office in the near term future. Other posts in the cabinet also seem to change about the same pace as I change underwear.

Then, on top of this we now have the additional financial impact of the recovery of Japan as well as energy converservation efforts that might be lasting for a pretty long time.

So yeah, what do the people of Japan seem to care about? Well, one of the biggest news lately was about the "general election" to select the most popular AKB48 girls... Apparently one "vote" was included in each physical copy of their latest single, which subsequently ended up with record sales of a little over a million copies sold.

On the news they interviewed some really sad people who had bought hundreds of copies to be able to boost the vote for their favorite girl. One guy in particular mentioned how he had bought a large number of singles to support his favorite, and when asked if he had a girlfriend he answered "no, that would be really bad, what if I met (his favorite AKB girl) her and then couldn't hook up with her because I had a girlfriend?"...

I'm not sure if this is symptom of the problem or the problem itself... But hey, maybe this is the key to actually get more younger Japanese people interested in politics? Have the AKB48 girls take over the government, at least people would vote and they could hardly do a worse job than the people there now!

15 comments:

F. said...

I.... I.... lately, I struggle for words.

Spot on. SPOT ON.

Sarahf said...

At least all of the geeky CD buying is helping the economy. AKB48 in charge of Japan? You're right, couldn't be any worse.

Kathryn said...

What an idiot, like he couldn't hook up with her. I'm sure his gf would understand.

Anonymous said...

Well I can't speak for Foreign Salaryman's country but is this not the problem with all/most of our countries? I don't think I go a week without having to avoid getting into a self-righteous rage because "OMFG this is happening in the world today and this is the f***ing lead story?? This is what all of the numb-nutted morons are talking about??" Both in NZ and when watching US news. I'll give you this one because it is a beautiful contrast, but on the other hand Japan is not exactly unknown for its escapism I guess! At least it isn't half-assed :-)

Anonymous said...

Much of the world's population seems to be fixated on completely frivolous and useless news. Japan just has some more interesting obsessions.

Chris said...

"no, that would be really bad, what if I met (his favorite AKB girl) her and then couldn't hook up with her because I had a girlfriend?"...


That moron is a sybol of what the fuck is wrong with this country...their is a huge disconnect from reality going on? I'm fucking speechless.

Chris said...

@Anonymous

There are back to back to back revolutions going on...and their televised. Your comment about Japan is a good example..."interesting obsessions"?

How about "Apathy..by Ignorance"?

Jon Doe said...

They just don`t know what to do...so they do nothing of course.
Many folks in Japan wants to pretend that everything is fine. For some reason, a lot of folks have a block in their brain. They cannot wake up to reality.
While the pressure cooker gets hotter and hotter folks are worshiping pop media idols and spanking the monkey to AV porn.

井上エイド said...

I'm sure Tomomi ITANO would make a fine Prime Minister. I've seen her get out of some tough spots in the torture quiz game show 脱出DERO!. That's enough of a qualification for me.

Will said...

@Chris: On May 27, 2011, when he passed,there were people who noticed. I'm always learning.

@Ghost:So reminiscent of the 'boiling frog syndrome.' And apparently there's some truth to that folk wisdom. As for monkeys...sometimes they need a good spanking. But not here, not now.

@Salaryman:I was surprised last night over the PTA nomi-kai when a few of the other dads started to speak...it gave me hope. One guy was talking about how he does what he can to live on what is available by fixing and building with his own hands. Took him three years to build his place. Last night, I saw a number of sets of hands that I recognized where no strangers to work. A tough crowd, in some ways; it's kind of starting to feel like home. We'll see.

aimlesswanderer said...

Gee thanks, my eyes are bleeding now.

Mr. Salaryman said...

BiJ - Yes, I have to agree with myself there, thank you too ;)[

Saraf - I actually briefly thought the same thought too, but hey, if it's these guys we rely on to save the economy we're worse out than I thought....

Kath - Well, he could just dump her too but in any case he probably shouldn't hold his breath...

Sigma1 - I agree. It's not really a unique Japanese thing to pretend like everything's fine, but this whole juxtapose of elections just makes it too obvious I would think...

Anon - I think you missed the point, Sigma got it so maybe you can try re-reading the post and then Sigma1's comment?

Chris - Well, at least it was funny, in that really really sad depressive way? I think there's a bigger chance of you punching out my teeth than that guy hooking up with any girl of any kind (nevermind any AKB girl)

Ghost - Hey, nice to see you here, I have read your blog (but I am a notoriously bad commenter on most blogs I read, my apologies)!But yeah, it's ok to spank the monkey to AV idols after the basic shit has been taken care of, but too much monkey spanking with the house on fire...

Eido - Oh, that girl! I actually remember her from the news. Apparently she lost her position in the "magic 7" and came in position 8? Wow, that's sad that I latched on to that trivia, isn't it?

Will - I really hope that we will see a change soon, otherwise things will get really bad... It's too bad that the DPJ could not use the positive momentum that they received after the election, but their "change" just turned out to be "more of the same"...

Aimless - Oh, c'mon, this one is weak compared to some of my other pics! Grow some balls ;)

aimlesswanderer said...

Most of your pics are funny, but this is both sad and very disturbing.

Rydangel said...

Ok...now there ain't nothing wrong with a little escapism. But make sure your costume fits properly. Bloomers and spanx are your friend. Big girls can look good too. I admit to my otaku tendencies as evidenced by the 4 boxes of comic books stashed in my closet. But to refuse to date a real live girl on the off-chance you might meet your favorite idol and possibly hook-up with that person is crazy. However, if I ever meet Kame, or Matsujun, I will be arrested for stalking,kidnapping, and sexual harrassment.
8p

Mun-Yeen said...

If AKB48 ever become in charge of Japan, I'd like to see Lady Gaga in charge of America.

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