I happened to see a report that put Japan’s gross domestic product per capita — the amount of goods and services that each person produces over the course of a year — at $38.371 in 2008, which ranked it 19th among industrial nations. While some of this is of course related to the weak economy and currency changes, it’s also indicative of one of the basic themes of Japan as a whole: inefficiency. When you drive past road construction, there are sure to be several men whose job it is to stand by the road with orange flashlights, ostensibly directing traffic even though everyone ignores them. When individuals or businesses need to send money to someone, you can’t mail a check as they don’t exist here; instead, you go to the bank and execute a manual bank transfer (furikomi), paying a $6 fee to the bank for this privilege. And amazingly, an employee of NHK still comes around to our house every month to pick up the 2000 yen viewing fee (equivalent to the license fee for the BBC). rather than having it paid automatically the mail. In case you were wondering, the top five countries were Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, the United States and Ireland.
Japan’s efficient parking ojisans start another busy day.
