Forever Young: The Changing Face of Consumerism in Tokyo's Stagnant Economy

TOKYO, JAPAN
On a Sunday along the the streets of the Harajuku district of Tokyo, you will see Japanese youth dressed in the newest elaborate fads and fashions, giving the district the reputation of having some of the best street style in the world. This display of self-identity allows for self expression and fun in a conformist society, but beneath this front, is a deeper social issue plaguing Japan. Japan is a very wealthy nation, and the result of that is lots of consumerism. This is how Japan's been for quite some time. The surplus leads to outlandish fads that define their culture. However, the problem is that the stagnant economy has led to high unemployment rates. The youth of Japan is moving back in with their parents and postponing having a stable job, marriage, and home ownership. They are extending their childhoods and are staying in states of suspended adolescence. 

The young people of Japan are growing into the adults of Japan, but aren't acting or dressing any different from the kids. This refusal to grow up or lack of the ability to grow up is completely altering Japan's society. The consumerist fashion represents the indulgence and superficiality that has been present in Japan for a long time, but the people sporting the trends have the money to keep up with the fads but little else. The fashions, such as manga and anime, allow them to appear more well-off than they actually are. The economic problems of this country are causing the young people to live at home, and is creating a sort of social recession. The out-of-a-job young person tends to look to things like Harajuku or choose to lock themselves up in their houses and never leave. This direct reflection of the city's struggling economy and lack of jobs is present in Tokyo, but you can also see it popping up in both Europe and the U.S. in different forms. 


This same class of disillusioned youth is forming in America, and if it continues for long enough, then it may form a permanent underclass that begins to drop out of society. American social tradition has been to show your class through how big your house is or what car you drive, but America's youth is moving toward showing their social status by how they dress. Some social groups that you can see similar, but less extreme, tendencies in are goths or hipsters. They represent a sort of change in consumerism. Extreme self-expression through changes in appearance could be looked at as replacement for real life. These people in Japan are living in the fantasy world of fashion, and feel so hopeless that they don't see the point in leaving it. America could be heading in that direction. 

Eye of the Storm: Why Eyes on the Street Aren't Good Enough

People loot and that is a fact. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and any major natural disaster, people loot.  However, it is mainly prevalent in large cities.

The unity of the city and the unity of the country came to save
this battered Midwestern town

On May 22, 2011 Joplin, Missouri, a city of about 51,000, was flattened by a F5 tornado. This tornado was a half mile wide and leveled everything in its path including the main hospital, the high school, and thousands of homes. Despite this devastation however, looting was minimal according to police.

Inversely, looting is already an extreme issue in the aftermath of Sandy. In Brooklyn, New York, there have already been businesses destroyed by looting. Mega Aid Pharmacy, a local business, was completely carved out by looters. The majority of the stolen goods were prescription medications.

An eye on the street destroyed by looters

I believe that the cause for the differences in the aftermath of disasters in small towns and big cities is the people. In small towns, it is like the idea of "eyes on the street" on steroids. Instead of just business watching out for the sake of their own business, it is people truly looking out for their neighbor's best interest because of the close knit emphasis in small towns. Relationships do not have business hours or days off.

It is about people being close together emotionally as opposed to being close together physically. Close proximity physically does not create close relationships.

In big cities like New York, they shove people together into tenements like dogs expecting them to come out holding hands and loving each other. One resident told the Huffington Post, "People are turning on each other -- they're attacking each other. Even when there's no disaster, this building is disastrous. But after the hurricane, it just got crazy." 

For a community to come together after a disaster, there must be unity, but not the type that is forced by the government. It must be a genuine love for the people around the city or town. The new question that has to be raised is, "is that possible for a big city?" Maybe the best place to live is a small town?

Alleyways in the City

Alleyways today are commonly known as "avoid" zones. What I mean is that, if you're walking home to your apartment that is a few blocks northeast, you most likely won't take the shortcut between the restaurant and the other apartment complex. Why? Because frankly alleys appear what people today call sketchy. Riddled with dumpsters and graffiti, alleys are areas that most people avoid because they have a bad reputation of being the location of illegal activities and hobo-hangouts. I believe that the stereotypes associated with alleyways could be solved with the broken windows theory that modernizing and maintaining alleyways would deter crime and anti-social behavior.  

Jacob Riis dedicates a whole chapter in his photographic collection How the Other Half Lives to downto wn alleyways. He describes them as the worst parts of the city, the areas where the tenements spill out into the streets and cause violence and general trouble in the city. He writes, "A man lies dead in the hospital who was cut to pieces in a 'can racket' in the alley... The sway of the excise law is not extended to these back alleys..." (34). Both in the last century and now alleys have been accepted as generally corrupt places. Shielded in darkness, they almost welcome the presence of shady activities. Riis points out that the light hardly reaches the alleyways: "the rays of the sun, rising, setting, or at high noon... never shone into the alley from the day the devil planned and man built it" (36). Building wider spaces in alleyways would allow for more sunlight to perforate the area. I understand that alleys are also used for social services such as waste removal. But many are left unused and host cracked walls and weed-infested grounds. Placing benches and painting murals on the walls could potentially invite more pedestrians to stay use alleyways as a path or even a stop. If this were to happen, according the the broken windows theory, it would decrease the amount of crime committed in the alleyways and while increasing the beauty of an urban space.