Thank you for all your emails every day.
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In a lot of emails, I'm hearing people voicing doubts about these things, "self-discipline" and "indulgence."
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I know exactly how you feel.
I think a lot of people are being misdirected in the best way to channel their emotions and their desire to do something.
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I'm sure you all know this already, but
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What all of us who have not been directly injured by the disaster need to be doing is keeping the economy going.
The people under the jurisdiction of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. will be saving electricity.
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There are stores in Western Japan that are shortening their hours to avoid "indulgence."
But, for them, I think there is really no need for this excess "self discipline," in the form of saving power.
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Instead of doing that, Western Japan needs to be building up steam economically, to help buoy up Eastern Japan, whose economy is currently largely at a standstill.
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You have to use money, consume products and services, keep the economy going.
If you keep the economy going at full speed, it will be easier for the people who have lost their jobs to find new jobs.
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Okay, we postponed the Buck-Tick tour, but it wasn't about "self-discipline" or about "indulgence," it's because there is a lot of danger and anxiety in the air and we felt there was no way we could have a live show without that interfering.
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Even if we got people all sweaty and worked up in the live house pit, people would still be thinking, "somehow, I feel down..." or "overall, I just feel bad..."
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But, yeah. Western Japan, I'm talking about Kansai, Shikoku, Sanyo/San'in and Kyuushuu, please, just keep spending money and keeping the economy going.
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If you do that, soon we'll be able to announce the new schedule for the postponed tour.
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For now, just sit tight.
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IMAI 14:51
I'm going to put in my two cents now, because this is a hugely important point that Imai is making. Western Japan has been largely undamaged by the disaster, and the Western Japanese power grid isn't even connected to the eastern power grid, so saving power does approximately nothing to help with the power shortage up north, though profligate consumption of resources is not something I endorse. But Imai's point is, holding back on normal life activities because you feel bad or worried about the quake/tsunami/meltdown not only doesn't help, it's actively bad for the country. And to a certain extent this goes for people in Kanto, too. For example, a lot of stores may be closed, but if there are stores that are open, shop at them. If there are restaurants/bars that are open, go out to eat and drink. Go to work, and work as productively as you can. I know most of the readers of this blog don't live in Japan but I'm going to say it anyway.
I am staying in Japan till end of April, and I was going to attend their Osaka live.
ReplyDeleteLife hasnt really changed here in Osaka, I'll keep shopping and eating out, continue what I was doing before.
Sad thing is, many tourists have cancelled their vacations.. And Japan will not get much money trough tourism for few months maybe.
(...and I kinda hope they will postpone the tour for only few weeks more, it's maybe selfish for me to say this but I really really wanted to see them live...)
that's so damn true what Imai said.
ReplyDeleteI was really shocked at the length of this blog post (compared to most of his). He must be really sincere about it.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to me though. Of course I don't live in Japan at all so my buying has no effect on anything...
But I can understand it sort of, people wanting to refrain (because even I all the way over here feel like I should too, if only out of guilt for having nice things with all the suffering going on).
But what both of you said is rather insightful on the matter. Everyday I'm just wishing there was something more I could do.
The common feeling seems to be that we wish there was more we could do. Raising money from afar is one thing, but yes it's a shame that the resident foreigners are leaving. Myself, I will try and travel there as soon as I am able. I'm hoping Japan's economy survives this, but I am also hoping that all over the world we start to learn to live with the idea of less consumption in mind. I mean, isn't that what got us into all this mess in the first place? (And by this mess I mean all over the world the polluting of the planet and other species--oil, electricity all of these things are causing massive loss of habitat and animal life--including human, if you look at the cost to our health). But yes for the short term, I can see both your and Imai's point quite clearly.
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