Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
demonstrations
occurred sporadically throughout the decade, and rumbled on into the
late 1960s (in 1968 the authorities closed Tokyo University for a year). Heavily armed
riot police became a familiar sight on the streets, but the situation was never allowed to
threaten the major event of the postwar period: on October 10, 1964, Emperor
Hirohito opened the eighteenth
Olympic Games
. The first Olympics ever held in Asia,
the games marked Japan's return to economic health and to international respectability.
Boom and bust
Like the rest of the industrialized world, Japan suffered during the oil crisis of the
1970s, but by the following decade her economy was the envy of the world. The late
1980s
boom
saw land prices in Tokyo reach dizzying heights, matched by excesses of
every conceivable sort - everything from gold-wrapped sushi to mink toilet-seat covers.
Now referred to as the “bubble period”, these days were characterized by fast living
- the stereotype of salarymen throwing down tens of thousands of yen each night at
champagne-and-girlie bars is not all that far off.
Such heady optimism was reflected, too, in a series of ambitious
building projects
.
Some came off, like the Metropolitan Government off,
ces in Shinjuku and the Odaiba
reclamation in Tokyo Bay, while others were left on the drawing board, amongst them
the X-Seed 400, which remains the largest building ever designed in full: 4km high,
larger than Mount Fuji and planned to house half a million.
By 1992, with the stock market rapidly sinking and businesses contracting, it was
clear that the economic bubble had burst. This grim situation was compounded by
EDUCATION
“E
cient” is probably the stereotype most readily associated with Japan, and in a land where
trains run to the second, you'll see plenty of supporting evidence during your stay. E
ciency,
however, is not a word that can really be applied to the country's
educational system
: one of
the most conservative elements of one of the world's most conservative countries, it has
essentially remained unchanged for decades. For visitors, its problems will be most evident in
the low levels of
English-speaking
ability: though all Japanese study the language for up to
a decade, only a fraction are able to hold a simple conversation. With private language
academies catering to a demand that the government has not been able to sate, this has
been a boon to thousands upon thousands of foreign teachers, most of whom each cart a
substantial chunk of their salary home at the end of their stay.
Then of course, there's the
pressure
on the students themselves. Days can be long, and even
on Saturdays and Sundays you'll see plenty of kids walking around in school uniform. All
students are required to attend after-school classes; most do sports of some kind, which is
great for the health, but some students clock up more than of 36 hours per week doing
extra-curricular activities (baseball is said to be the most time-consuming). Though a majority
of students go on to university, getting there is no walk in the park: those who want to go to
Tokyo University or other high-end establishments have to sit full suites of independent tests
(usually multiple-choice, with no room for discussion or debate). Pressure is thus magnified
into a few precious hours, and results from previous years of schooling is often overshadowed.
In Tokyo, and around the country, there exist lobby groups which demand wholesale change
to the system; if change eventually arrives, it's likely to do so slowly.
1881
1923
1942
1945
Small watch shop
called Seikō opens
in Ginza
Great Kantō
Earthquake strikes,
killing over 100,000
First bombs fall
in World War II
World War II ends; Japan
under American occupation
