This country doesn't lead people to become happy

Great pop-up Lego Kinkakuji! I think he is a creater of this Yamato.

This is today's Googole Japan logo. Today's is in commemoration of Ranpo Edogawa's birthday, he is a pioneer of Japanese mystery novel. Nice mood logo!  By the way,  Ranpo Edogawa is his pen name, which is a Japanese version of "Edgar Allen Poe" (if you read his name backwards, western style: Edogawa Ranpo)  

I laughed a lot to read this ariticle. "A Saudi woman is seeking a divorce after discovering her husband had nicknamed her 'Guantanamo' on his mobile phone.". I remember my female friend had been nicknamed "Boris Yeltsin" but she never knew she had such nickname.

Do you have an image of Japanese people as being rich? Today I read some pretty shocking news. The rate of poverty in Japan went up to 15.7% in 2006. This group is people who live on less than half the average annual salary. And that 15.7% is the 4th worst in 30 countries of OECD. Since the Japanese average annual salary is 4,400,000yen ($44000). 15.7% of Japanese are living on less than 2,200,000yen ($22000). 180,000yen per month....hmm it may possible if they are single even in Tokyo but it will be a tough life. By the way, the point is not the money actually, we said "all-Japanese-have-a-middle-class mentality" before but now the gap between rich and poor is widening. This country doesn't lead people to become happy.

Comments

[Peter]

I have been to Japan many times and I always thought that everyone was about equal in terms of wealth. Most people look pretty comfortable to me. Here in the UK we have some filthy rich people and some woefully poor rather like the US.

[mari]

hi thank you for your comments!! yes everything is concentrated at the top

[RMilner]

Japan is a rich country but the wealth is becoming concentrated at the top, like in the USA, UK, Brazil and other countries.

[Chris]

Happy Birthday, Edogawa Rampo.
His books are cool!