A recent lunch left a bad taste in my mouth — and it wasn’t because of the food.
My companion, a Nagatacho insider who is usually pretty upbeat, was dismayed and angry. “Japan is doomed,” he lamented, disheartened by the readiness of the best and brightest of its youth to turn their backs on government service and the country itself.
The nation’s demographic woes are an old story. The country’s worrisome trajectory was first traced over 50 years ago and warnings have only intensified. (I first tackled the national security consequences of a shrinking, graying population some 15 years ago.) Figures released last month showed the first-ever drop of Japanese residents in every prefecture.