In post-war #Japan, “Moderate prosperity and lifetime employment was guaranteed if you could tolerate the strictures of #corporate life. But the men in charge put it all on black, went bust and made up their losses selling off what remained to foreign capital; Japanese #socialism - the command economy responsible for public housing, employment for life and fast trains - was dismantled. Japan became hopeless, and the promised renewal has never come to pass. And so, everyone is looking backward.”

Meanwhile, the images sold to tourists commodify fantasy for profit.

Sobering reflections from Dylan Levi King

Tokyo drift: what happens when a city stops being the future? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/14/tokyo-drift-what-happens-when-a-city-stops-being-the-future?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other