Master explainer Akira Ikegami makes his sixth appearance on "Mirai Seiki Jipangu" ("Future Century Japan"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 10 p.m.) for a two-part exploration of the Kingdom of Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas.
Bhutan is famous for having the highest Gross National Happiness in the world. GNH is an index that measures spiritual well-being as opposed to material well-being, which tends to be gauged by conventional GNP (Gross National Product) parameters. Since Bhutan invented GNH based on Buddhist precepts, it makes sense that the country always ranks high, and Ikegami endeavors to find out what GNH actually means.
He discovers a culture that, economically speaking, will be familiar to Japanese who grew up in the 1960s, but he also senses a darker aspect related to rising consumption and inflation.