日本はすごい・・・らしいｗ。

＜2月1日＞（水）

○やや旧聞に属する話なのだが、年初のＮＹＴ紙オピニオン欄にこんな記事が出ている。日本は失敗した国だ、というのは丸っきりのウソであって、実はとっても上手にやっているんじゃないか、というのである（"The Myth of Japan's Failure"　By EAMONN FINGLETON　Published: January 6, 2012 ）。

○その証拠に、といって挙げている事実は以下のようなラインナップである。

●Japan’s average life expectancy at birth grew by 4.2 years - to 83 years from 78.8 years - between 1989 and 2009. This means the Japanese now typically live 4.8 years longer than Americans. The progress, moreover, was achieved in spite of, rather than because of, diet. The Japanese people are eating more Western food than ever. The key driver has been better health care. 

●Japan has made remarkable strides in Internet infrastructure. Although as late as the mid-1990s it was ridiculed as lagging, it has now turned the tables. In a recent survey by Akamai Technologies, of the 50 cities in the world with the fastest Internet service, 38 were in Japan, compared to only 3 in the United States. 

●Measured from the end of 1989, the yen has risen 87 percent against the U.S. dollar and 94 percent against the British pound. It has even risen against that traditional icon of monetary rectitude, the Swiss franc. 

●The unemployment rate is 4.2 percent, about half of that in the United States. 

●According to skyscraperpage.com, a Web site that tracks major buildings around the world, 81 high-rise buildings taller than 500 feet have been constructed in Tokyo since the “lost decades” began. That compares with 64 in New York, 48 in Chicago, and 7 in Los Angeles. 

●Japan’s current account surplus - the widest measure of its trade - totaled $196 billion in 2010, up more than threefold since 1989. By comparison, America’s current account deficit ballooned to $471 billion from $99 billion in that time. Although in the 1990s the conventional wisdom was that as a result of China’s rise Japan would be a major loser and the United States a major winner, it has not turned out that way. Japan has increased its exports to China more than 14-fold since 1989 and Chinese-Japanese bilateral trade remains in broad balance. 

○ほかにも、「ＪＦＫ空港やダレス空港に比べると、日本のインフラの方が新しい」とか、「日本ではペットがとてつもなく甘やかされている」など、いちいちごもっともな指摘があるので飽きません。一服の清涼剤と思ってご一読ください。

○で、ちょっと不思議だなと思ったのが、「東京ではバブル崩壊後に、高さ500フィート(150メートル)以上の建物が81棟も建っている」という指摘である。はて、そんなにあったかな、と思ったのだが、たまたま今日、品川駅近くに所用があった際に納得しましたな。あの一帯はまさしく新築ビルのラッシュで、雨後のタケノコのような様相を呈している。なるほど、こりゃすごい。

○ということで、日本って結構すごいんですぜ、というお話でした。