With the yearend summaries behind us and the stockpile of New Years' TV variety specials exhausted, the media turns its attention to the business of looking at Japan's future. It's an annual ritual that rarely results in anything edifying, but 2008 may turn out to be a watershed year.
The U.S. presidential election has the potential of offering genuine change after eight years of George W. Bush, and Japan will probably have its own general election fairly soon. With the likelihood of some kind of grand coalition growing daily, the Japanese election could also mean big changes.
Last weekend, the Asahi Shimbun invited two high-profile social critics, writer Shuichi Kato and University of Tokyo Professor Chizuko Ueno, to weigh in on Japan's prospects for 2008, and both endeavored to look further into the future since they feel that the country is at a "turning point." In fact, Kato, who was born in 1919, believes that Japan is facing its greatest challenge since the end of World War II.