ABSTRACT
It is well known that Japan is an economic superpower-the world’s greatest asset country1-with the biggest per capita GNP, the biggest aid budgets, the biggest banks, and many of the biggest corporations in the world, and the center of the most dynamic sector of the world-trad ing system.2 But can it be assumed that, because Japan is economically resoundingly successful as a nation, its people are correspondingly happy, wealthy, and enjoying the fruits of that success? It is true that consumer income has risen, so that it soars like a statistical Mount Fuji over the surrounding region (and most of the world). A kind of wealth is certainly reflected in the conspicuous consumption that absorbs the energies of Japan’s people. Prosperity means that sixty million cars clog the highways; one-third of the world’s tuna catch and two-fifths of its shrimp pass through Japanese stomachs; one-quarter of the world’s tropical timber is imported; millions of ordinary people take overseas holidays every year.3 In terms of life expectancy, literacy, years of schooling, and personal income, Japan ranked number one in the world from 1990 to 1993, and remained number three even after that.4
