by carterjmrn | Jun 11, 2019 | Carter Group Viewpoints, Society and Culture
Whether you call it solo katsu, the super-solo life or ohitorisama (“doing things on your own”), living single is big in Japan. I’m not talking only about so-called parasite singles, either—I mean fully independent individuals who are putting a mostly...
by carterjmrn | Sep 27, 2018 | Carter Group Viewpoints, Society and Culture
While September is viewed as the start of the school year in the US. Japan’s school year starts in April, and my eldest son will enter the local elementary school. While there is pride as a father, there is also a sense of trepidation, as a number of decisions have to...
by carterjmrn | Jul 10, 2018 | Carter Group Viewpoints, Society and Culture
Politics is Downstream from Culture Before he passed away in 2012 the controversial American right-wing alternative media figure Andrew Brietbart often repeated the mantra ‘politics is downstream from culture’. Many would agree that American politics and culture have...
by carterjmrn | Jun 4, 2018 | Ageing and Generations, Society and Culture
When I was a kid I used to love watching the 80’s American TV show, “Family Ties”. If you’re of the same vintage as me you may well remember the character Alex P. Keaton, the uber-conservative son of the family. Alex famously said, “People who have money don’t...
by carterjmrn | Apr 12, 2018 | Carter Group Viewpoints, Society and Culture
Some of them look as though they’ve just rolled out of bed before making their YouTube upload, pausing just long enough to make a cup of coffee before hitting “record” on their camera or smartphone. Others have props and lighting, costuming, fancy graphics and their...
by carterjmrn | Oct 21, 2012 | Carter Group Viewpoints, Society and Culture
At Decks Mall in Tokyo’s Odaiba there is a whole floor devoted to an attraction called Daiba Itchome Shoutengai. That precinct of the shopping centre is a self-contained step back in time to the urban Japan of the sixties. The place is bursting with candy, trinkets,...
