One reason I think I felt comfortable living in Japan is that in the 00s it was still a very middle-class society.
I was raised to value middle-class-ness, and Japan offered a temporary refuge from the class divisions I saw relentlessly emerging in my own country.
I was raised to value middle-class-ness, and Japan offered a temporary refuge from the class divisions I saw relentlessly emerging in my own country.
But even in the 00s I could see Japan starting to undergo class divisions of the type I'd seen in America. And nowadays it is a much more unequal place than it used to be.
Still, I got to see a middle class society as an adult, and that was an invaluable experience.
Still, I got to see a middle class society as an adult, and that was an invaluable experience.
We need to know what it's like to live in a middle-class society. Even when nobody actually remembers having lived in one. It needs to be a goal that we strive relentlessly to recreate.
