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   M Estévez (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Feb-2023 22:00:50 JST M Estévez

   Narita often appears in Japanese media as a ‘genius who teaches at Yale’ alongside with other well known provocateurs who preach selfishness and greed. He’s become quite a provocateur himself promoting a radical form of ageism. The value of human life and human rights are not highly valued concepts in Japan. That makes Narita’s messages even more dangerous. #Yale

   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/asia/japan-elderly-mass-suicide.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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     M Estévez (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Feb-2023 22:32:58 JST M Estévez

     in reply to

     In #Japan, the most aged society in the world, there are so many vulnerable old citizens. Contrary to the Confucian ideas, Japan is not a society that’s kind to its old citizens. Japan doesn’t even have minimum pension available in many European countries. Those whose pensions are too small continue working into their 80s doing any menial jobs they can find becoming the reserve army of low wage proletariat. The employment rate of those in the 70s has been steadily going up as a result.

     pica.pica🇵🇸#StopGazaGenocide repeated this.
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     M Estévez (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Feb-2023 22:39:06 JST M Estévez

     in reply to

     Someone like Narita must be thinking that he’s so smart and can see through the problems of the Japanese society. Yet, people like him, Hiroyuki and Horie end up helping the conservative rule in Japan. The LDP government wants to cut back on social security spending, and any provocateurs that single out social welfare recipient groups as ‘causing problems for Japan’ is very welcome by the LDP. LDP is very similar to GOP in this sense.

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     M Estévez (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 12-Feb-2023 23:20:16 JST M Estévez

     in reply to

     • 藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii

     @taiyo well, people like him are so used to meeting with business leaders who are old. What PM Abe failed to see or didn’t care are those who only have national people’s pension rather than Employees’ pension. The level of national people’s pension is lower than the payout of public assistance program. Now that most elderly live by themselves, they don’t have enough to live off. That’s why we see so many old people cleaning toilets everywhere in #Japan.

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     藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii (taiyo@ostatus.taiyolab.com)'s status on Sunday, 12-Feb-2023 23:20:17 JST 藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii

     in reply to

     @JapanProf Former PM Abe was proud of elder working.

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     Mayumi Naramura (narako@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Feb-2023 05:30:11 JST Mayumi Naramura

     in reply to

     @JapanProf An acquaintance of mine (a white American male) used to subscribe to a similar radical ageism and talked adoringly about "The Ballad of Narayama". He even believed that "ubaste" was still practiced in Japan. Now in his 70s and in poor health, he is absolutely fearful of his life and calls 911 at the slightest discomfort. Narita may be a professor at Yale, but he must be mentally as immature as a grade school kid.

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     M Estévez (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Feb-2023 06:22:07 JST M Estévez

     in reply to

     • Mayumi Naramura

     @Narako someone teaching in an American university should have known better. He probably thought that Yale University and his American econ colleagues would never find out whatever he was saying in the Japanese media in Japanese.

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     Mayumi Naramura (narako@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Feb-2023 07:31:10 JST Mayumi Naramura

     in reply to

     @JapanProf Worst case scenario, someone is going to pick him up in Japan based on his MIT PhD and Yale faculty credentials. Remember the MIT guy who lied about Epstein money? I think he has settled back in Japan.