Sometimes Japan seems to be a terribly dysfunctional place. Changing leaders every few months and building the Panama Canal worth of public works projects each year aren’t the hallmarks of most effective of countries. At other times, however, Japan can be surprisingly competent. The other day I caught an interesting TV show called Takeshi’s TV Tackle: 50 Citizens vs. Japan Diet Members Anger Battle! In the show, internationally famous comedian and director “Beat” Takeshi brought in a panel of distinguished Japanese politicians and sat them down in a studio with different groups of average Japanese who talked about the problems they were facing today. In one segment farmers detailed the challenges they faced turning a profit from their crops in Japan’s overly structured agricultural market, while a group of hostesses from Ginza’s famous drinking establishments detailed how deflation was impacting their businesses, followed by truck drivers who expressed anger over politicians’ failure to make good on their promises to make Japanese freeways truly “free.” In each segment, each group listened and told their side of things, and there was real discussion happening back and forth, so that each group ended up with a better understanding of the opinions held by the other side. Sadly, there’s a lot more one-sided demagoguery and emotional button-pushing (*cough* Fox News *cough*) and a lot less open communication on similar shows in the U.S., and I’d love to see reasonable programs like Takeshi’s TV Tackle imitated more.
As long as I’m wishing, I’d also like a pony.
Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle promotes open discussion of the issues.
