Nothing is permanent but change. The idea of transience has a long tradition in Japan, coming to the fore at times and receding into the background at others. Reinforced by the uncontrollable elements of nature, it is never completely absent from the Japanese mind.
In "Japan's Quiet Transformation," author Jeff Kingston argues that there is a particularly strong sense of change in Japan at present, because things are indeed changing at an accelerated pace.
On the whole, if we can believe Kingston, the ongoing changes are for the better. "Japan," he says, "is a better place to live in 2003 than in 1990." Still, the question remains: For whom is it a better place to live? For the author, for foreign residents, for everyone, for those who lost their jobs in the meantime?
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