Regarding the Aug. 28 editorial "Global citizen Haruki Murakami": I was born in the generation after Japan's dankai (baby boomers), whose enormous population and aggressive self-assertion always overwhelmed us. They were always arguing that they would someday change not only Japan but also the world.
Recently, after the successive regimes of two dankai prime ministers, Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, I can't help wondering what the dankai have accomplished beyond the works of writer Haruki Murakami and composer-musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The two prime ministers could not advance our society, and put a backward spin on diplomatic policy. Their latent nostalgia for the left wing prompted China to make light of Japan's sincerity toward the United States, our key ally.
Even longtime supporters of the Democratic Party of Japan were disappointed with the unscrupulous favor that Hatoyama showed to China. And Kan's handling of the collision event near the Senkaku islets was nothing less than a national disgrace.
Are the dankai just fancy dreamers who are already retreating from the stage, transferring their power to a more realistic generation that comprises people like Yoshihiko Noda (prime minister) and Seiji Maehara (DPJ policy research chairman)?
I don't think so. The dankai's dreams have at least encouraged us and sometimes consoled our troubled minds. What we Japanese desperately need now is high ideals. Without any dream or hope, Japan's reality is too cruel to live with.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.