Economic Salvation for Japan: Look towards the Light.

April 25, 2009 at 2:22 am | In Thoughts | 17 Comments
Tags: デスノート, Christ the Redeemer, Death Note, Economics, 麻生太郎, Mt. Fuji, Statue of Liberty, Taro Aso, Yagami Light, 夜神月, 富士山

Click for the 'in your face' version

In case you didn’t know, being preoccupied, as you were, with eating pie (In its various incarnations), the material world is currently in a recession. Why bother inserting ‘material‘, you ask. Spirits don’t have credit cards, as if you didn’t know already. Unless you’re the kind of person who burns paper Lamborghinis for the dead to enjoy in the afterlife.

I’m not going to write a dissertation on the apparently cruddy state of the economy, in case you were wondering. There’s quite a few other places you can go to for your fill of depressing real world issues. No, this ‘article’, if you will, will be frivolous, lightweight, and if possible… sparkly. I’m not normally sparkly, but one can always try, no?

Well, that’s that. Like every other national leader of any other country that’s having some financial trouble (With the possible exception of Zimbabwe, which is so bloated with inflation that they’re rather immune to it), the Prime Minister of Japan, Taro Aso (麻生太郎), popularly known as Rozen Aso, came up with an economic strategy to rejuvenate Japan’s export-reliant economy.

Now he’d have to be a complete jackass to announce a ‘plan‘ with just one idea in it, but given his nickname, the press (The pop media, at least) seems to have unfairly fixated on just one part of that plan- Otaku tourism. Click ‘plan‘ several words back for the source.

Governments have a sort of addiction that they just can’t escape from- the building mania, or whatever you call it, where, thinking that the money spent is money earned, they just build, build, and build. Dubai is living it at the moment. Anyway, here’s my suggestion to PM Aso- his Otaku tourism plan needs a symbol. It has to be big. Visible. So grand that even mindless birds don’t dare defecate on it.

What am I talking about? Think. America has the Statue of Liberty, conveniently parked in front of New York city, welcoming everyone with the time to travel there by sea. Rio de Janeiro has Christ the Redeemer blessing it even as it sins from the top of a mountain. Hmm. Scroll back up to the picture at the beginning of this article, and… ah.

Where better to park such a monument than Mount Fuji, the geological symbol of Japan? And what could be better than a statue of Yagami Light (夜神月) of Death Note, KIRA, benovelent god of the weak and abused, bringer of divine punishment to the evil and corrupt?

Standing tall and grand as he is portrayed on the cover of volume 12 of the manga, where he met a most unjust end, welcoming responsible and pure-hearted tourists, guaranteeing them sanctuary from the ravages of the outside world, guarding Japan from the scum and dirt of human society? With that, I rest my case. And no, Aso-san, a Rozen Maiden doll will not work.

17 Comments »

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O_O….why death note o_O

Comment by Wei Shin — April 26, 2009 #

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- Haha, you’d prefer Double 0 Raiser Gundam, right^.^
  All hail KIRA:p
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 26, 2009 #
  
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linked!(:

Comment by erna — April 26, 2009 #

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Haha I guess some Flatchested Loli in Schooluniform would attract more Otaku Tourism ;P

Comment by Blowfish — April 27, 2009 #

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- UNICEF would get the UN Security Council to nuke it before they manage to recoup the costs:)
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 27, 2009 #
  
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  - Haha thats probably true…
    Id say we rely on a big Kaiju Battle Colloseum to attract the Tourists then.
    They should start with Godzilla vs. US Zilla
    
    Comment by Blowfish — April 28, 2009 #
    
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    - That’s actually quite interesting… I vaguely remember some sort of Mechazilla from the series. That would be nice:p
      
      Comment by aprilius20 — April 28, 2009 #
      
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I’d imagine a bunch of fangirls would flock to see it. xD

Comment by Coco the Bean — April 27, 2009 #

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- Don’t forget the fanboys too! ^o^
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 27, 2009 #
  
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@A20: Haha, why not take the hint from “Naruto”? Find a good spot on Fuji, get some dynamite, and carve out the faces of Taro Aso, Yagami Light, Suzumiya Haruhi, and who would be the fourth? Lelouch? Hirano Aya-chan?… Oh wait, scratch that. With the way things are going, why not the girls of “K-On”? ^_^

Comment by xJAYMANx — April 27, 2009 #

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- I always wondered what they’d do when they ran out of mountain carving space- the same goes for Mt. Rockefeller (That’s the one, right?).
  The K-On girls? I haven’t gotten around to watching the show, but I have this stinking feeling that in one or two years KyoAni is going to come out with something similar, and then we’ll really be in trouble:3
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 28, 2009 #
  
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  - @A20: You mean Mt. Rushmore with the carved faces of four U.S. Presidents?… Haha, KyoAni, yeah, not even 1-2 years. Probably 6 months. But I’ll probably be watching it anyway, cloned or not, lol.
    
    Comment by xjaymanx — April 28, 2009 #
    
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    - Oops, yeah, Mt. Rushmore. Rockefeller was someone else^^;
      Will have to wait till I get my main workstation back on (downed by a virus) so I can resume the penniless otaku’s obvious activities (which I will not name here, but we all know what that means, lol) before I watch it:3
      
      Comment by aprilius20 — April 28, 2009 #
      
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If rich otaku from the US had their way, they’d probably have Naruto in place of Light. After all France is the one who donated the Statue of Liberty XD Light would be interesting, but not sure they could actually get something so huge up on top of Fuji. Interesting idea though ^^ Lucky Star girls have quite the tourist attraction going for themselves, so why not something as grand as this?

Comment by Persocom — April 28, 2009 #

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- Mmm, I wanted something with more lasting power (See earlier reply to Jay on KyoAni). Besides, no matter how much I love Konata, the Lucky Star girls have had their due. The hype must end, let them rest^-^
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 28, 2009 #
  
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Hmmmm… Very interesting. But, I wonder how much of an impact just otaku tourism will bring. I think Lucky Star has a pretty good thing going for many of the Japanese otaku. Maybe, if they built something like akihabara up at Mt.Fuji. ^^

Comment by rangerroh — April 28, 2009 #

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- The stuff up there better be better than those down in Tokyo, after the long trek up there, haha:3
  
  Comment by aprilius20 — April 28, 2009 #
  
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