Japanese Bugbears

I don’t want to put people off Japan or appear ungrateful to a country which has given me so much, but there must always be things which annoy the s**t out of you, no matter which country you live in. The traditional Western image of Japan is of a beautiful country of mountains and forests, serene temples and shrines, inscrutable, friendly people and a very high tech modern, forward thinking society.

BO*L*CKS.
While Japan certainly has elements of the above features, it has many many problems which tend to counter the rosy romantic image that we would all like to have of this ‘Land of the Gods’. Japan is a signatory to many international conventions and protocols, most notably the Kyoto Protocol, which was obviously debated over and created in the city of that name in the Kansai area of Japan. Sounds good doesn’t it, here we have a high tech country which produces the smallest, most environmentally friendly cars in the world, signing up to reduce CO2 emissions. Shouldn’t be too long before their engineers have given us an electric car that runs on power derived from the methane gas produced from Japanese sewage or something. Sorry to disappoint and disillusion, but Japan usually ignores things it signs up for if it suits them to do so. Civil liberties in Japan are precarious at the best of times. Despite being a signatory to the International Convention on Human Rights, Japan deports refugees who have been recognised as such in international courts, (especially if they have dark skin). So it is with the Kyoto Protocol. Any right thinking person would assume that the host government of such a treaty would bend over backwards to lead the world down the right path to a world of energy saving and environmental awareness, nope, sorry, style over substance every time. It’s currently cool to drive a car that looks like it could go from pole to pole cross country without difficulty and is large enough to house three peasant families from Thailand. Japan must answer the world’s cry for such gas guzzling monstrosities and thus remain ahead in the car sales stakes. Instead, Mr. Koizumi should pass a law banning the production of such pieces of s**t and at the same time, double the road tax for oversize 4x4s. I think Range Rover has a lot to answer for.
More ranting later. My next post will have to positive or I will end up totally cynical.