Commentator's curse

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, I blithely stated how safe Japan was, only to read today about the murder of a schoolboy in a park, the continuing inability of the police to catch the killer of an English teacher, and the 10th straight year that at least 30,000 people have committed suicide. Clearly, all is not well over here. It reminded me of a comment from a Japanese student I taught 10 years ago who had lived for some time in the UK. I asked him what the differences between the UK and Japan were. He said the UK had the little things wrong, but the big things right, but it was vice versa in Japan. For example, in the UK if you wanted to get out of an intercity train, you had to lower the window, stick your hand out and open the door manually from the outside, but you were free to spend the whole weekend with the family rather than playing golf with clients. He didn't give examples for Japan missing the wood for the trees, but I suppose you could cite the extreme punctuality of Japanese (my students often apologise for being late for a lesson when they arrive only two minutes early!) but then are expected to put in countless hours of unpaid overtime at work. But I've learnt my lesson - never generalise. Anyway, I'm off for a drink in Tokyo, so call the cops if I don't post anything on Sunday.