“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” – Barbara Bloom
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Taro Aso, Japanese Finance Minister and former Prime Minister, bemoaning the financial burden that caring for the elderly in their final years places on the country’s budget. Over a quarter of Japan’s 128 million people are above the age of 60—including Aso, who is 72.
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The Japanese are working themselves to death. Labor activists have been trying to draw attention to the problem of karoshi, or death from overwork, for decades. Reliable statistics can’t be found, because it’s hard to prove causation in the case of someone who, say, worked 36 hours in a row several times in the same month and then died of […]
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“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
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Japanese schoolchildren have been swept up in a new craze— eyeball licking. The bizarre practice, known as “worming” supposedly is an expression of intimacy, and was sparked by a music video in which a woman licks the lead singer’s eye. Ophthalmologists warned that the practice is causing scratched corneas and infections that could lead to blindness. But Japanese teens have […]
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