The story of the dimwitted man watching the rerun of a Clint Eastwood Western is relevant to current claims that the "structural reforms" urged by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will somehow rescue the Japanese economy.
Clint is riding full pelt toward an abyss, but the man bets his friend that horse and rider will not go over the cliff. When both do go over the cliff, the friend says he can't take the money since he had already seen the film and knew what would happen. To which the dimwit says that he too had seen the film before.
"Then why did you make the bet" asks the friend.