Idle Musings

  • Is a So-Called “National Strategy” Necessary for Humanity?

    Yesterday, while listening to a discussion at a seminar, a thought occurred to me. People often complain that “Japan has no national strategy.” But the nation-state itself is something of a mirage. . Once a society begins producing a surplus—in other words, once it accumulates wealth—people emerge who take it upon themselves to use that wealth. They have no practical…

  • A Proposal for an Alternative Version of The Odyssey

    Yesterday, I went to see Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated film The Odyssey. It was superb. . That said, one line spoken by Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, caught my attention: “I hear that bands of marauders known as the ‘Sea Peoples’ have been attacking city-states everywhere. They would finish the civilization.” . In ancient times, the “Sea Peoples” attacked cities along the Mediterranean…

  • Secure the Strait of Hormuz by Charging Tolls

    Navigation is becoming dangerous not only through the Strait of Hormuz, but also through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. This is intolerable for both oil-producing nations and trading nations. Nor does the United States military appear to retain the ability to secure these waterways by force. . If military force cannot solve the problem,…

  • Russian Anti-Americanism Is the Flip Side of “We Want to Do Whatever We Want, Just Like America”

    I just had an amusing conversation with ChatGPT, so I thought I’d post it here. . I said to ChatGPT: “I sometimes tease Russians about their excessive anti-Americanism. ‘Come on. What you really want is to be able to throw your weight around and do whatever you want, just like America. You’re anti-American because you can’t. Deep down, you actually…

  • Will China’s Humanoid Robots Replace the Chinese?

    Chinese humanoid robots that can run, jump, and perform all sorts of acrobatic feats have been attracting a great deal of attention lately. Watching them, one might even begin to wonder whether the day will come when China’s 1.4 billion people themselves are replaced by robots. Well, that is a joke. But what, then, has happened to Japan, a country…

  • The End of Oak Street: A Horror Story About America Today

    The day before yesterday, I went to see a new US movie The End of Oak Street. It is a horror movie in which an ordinary, middle-class suburban neighborhood is suddenly transported hundreds of millions of years into the past, leaving its residents to be chased by dinosaurs. The film was directed by David Robert Mitchell, born in 1974. .…

  • In Japan innovations occur within companies rather than by loners

    Japan’s public broadcaster NHK airs a program called Project X. Each episode tells the story of people who joined forces to develop a new technology or build something remarkable—a massive dam, the QR Code, a lunar exploration robot (tiny ones), and many others. One of the pleasures of the program is that the people who actually did the work return…

  • The Hollowing Out of American Pop Music

    　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Akio KAWATO Lately, pop music in many advanced countries seems increasingly mechanical, standardized, and overly technological. It feels very different from the American pop music of the late 1960s—artists such as Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King—or from Japan’s City Pop scene of the 1980s, represented by artists such as Eiichi Ohtaki, Minako Yoshida, and Taeko Ohnuki. The…

  • A Sunshade for the Planet

    　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　.Akio KAWATO Summer is coming again, and with it the heat. After years of record-breaking temperatures, even COP—the annual United Nations climate conference—seems to be losing its sense of direction. The more desperately the world tries to cut CO₂ emissions, the more the thermometer appears to mock us by climbing ever higher. . As a result, some rather creative ideas…

  • Shoot the Pianist: The Fate of Today’s Central Banker

    The Bank of Japan is widely expected to raise interest rates to 1 percent at its policy meeting on the 15th. Inflationary pressures have been building, and the widening interest-rate gap between Japan and the United States has helped push the yen into what often seems like an endless decline. . Then, today, came a surprise: BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda…