Like people elsewhere in the world, the Japanese have a fondness for the good old days. My great-grandfather's "good old days" were the 1920s, a time when there were public rose gardens in Hongo, with bushes imported directly from Kew Gardens in London. That was a time when rickshaws pulled up alongside the long black walls of geisha houses, where the drivers would get on their knees to help the geisha enter the carts. In those days, the local fish sellers considered it disrespectful to ask customers to come to their shops and would instead go to the customers' kitchens, prepare the fish, clean up and leave quietly.
The war changed all that. Great-granddad's favorite maxim was: "Minshushigi ga yononaka wo dame ni shita (Democracy was the ruin of this world.)"
But even he agreed that democracy improved some things, like the names Japanese parents gave their children. "In my day, we didn't have any fancy names, especially for women. Today's children go by names so zeitaku (extravagant) and kirabiyaka (luxurious), they could all be royalty!"