Every once in a while Japan does something that makes you stop and say, “wait, what?” Like when they advertised the latest Ring horror film by dressing up 50 women as Sadako coming out of a TV and walked them around Shibuya, scaring people. Or when you’re in the men’s onsen bath and a cleaning lady comes in, ignoring our nakedness as she tidies up the buckets and shampoo bottles. (Some of the stranger Japanese snacks that we sell on J-List probably make our customers say “what?” too.) The other day I stopped of at a convenience store to pick up some onigiri when I saw a rare thing: a gorgeous Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG, one of the most excellent cars I can think of, with the key in the ignition and the engine running while the owner went in to make a purchase. Now, Japan is a country blessed with low crime, and it’s not uncommon to see trusting souls keep their car running while they go buy some canned coffee or the newest issue of Shonen Jump, secure in the knowledge that no stranger would impolite enough to take their car for a joyride. But this was a car that costs more than a house in many U.S. states, sitting with its engine idling, free for the taking. All I could do was stare with my mouth hanging open at the sight of it.
Japan can occasionally make us say, “what?”
Last year I took a trip to Hakone, the “holy land” for Evangelion fans, and visited all the places seen in the series, even trekking through the brush with my phone in GPS mode for a half hour looking for Misato’s apartment building before realizing it hadn’t been built yet. Later I got the urge to re-watch the original series, since I hadn’t seen it properly in years. I had a great time, enjoying the retro 90s freshness along with the longer and more developed stories that were possible across 26 episodes, compared with the contraints of the three Eva films. I also enjoyed the “analog-ness” of the series, since it pre-dated fancy CG animation which all too often negatively impacts our enjoyment of what is still a fundamentally “2D” art form (I’m looking at you, Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio). While the last two episodes of Eva are famous for being rather horrible, sort of the 90s version of the Haruhi “Endless Eight” episodes, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my old friend again after all these years.
I finished my re-watching of the original Eva.
Japan is unique among modern industrial nations because of its rapidly aging population, which is the result of a birthrate of just 1.39 per female coupled with a very low rate of immigration from the outside. The country got some bad news when it was announced that 2013 saw a record population drop of 244,000, as deaths outpaced births at a faster rate than ever before, a news story that’s likely to be repeated every year for the foreseeable future. Other countries have issues with low fertility rates — Spain and Germany are about the same as Japan, and South Korea, always competitive where Japan is concerned, “wins” with just 1.22 babies born per female — but in Japan’s case there’s effectively zero net immigration, which means Japan will eventually have difficulty finding workers to keep its economy going. The married staff of J-List, at least, is doing our part to help raise Japan’s population, and most of us have two or three kids, which is above the average for Japan. Our French web designer’s Japanese wife gave birth to a wonderful baby boy last year, and our DVD buyer Tomo’s second child is on the way.
Japan’s population is slated to fall greatly this century.
J-List is loaded with awesome Sailor Moon products from Japan, from the kawaii “Swing Figure” sets official Sailor Moon bento boxes and cups and more. Sailor Moon is really exploding around the world right now, and as you’ve noticed by the large number of products that have sold out and been removed permanently from the site, it’s a good idea to preorder the items you want lest they go away forever. Click to browse the top Sailor Moon products, as ranked by our customers!
