Cash on the table: an expat's tale - real estate industry in Japan

Japan, Inc., March, 2003 by Robert Juppe

In sum, I figure that I am the Japanese economic quagmire in microcosm. For years, the banks have been accused of reckless lending. Now, along comes a guy with the full amount behind him, but they still won't lend because he fits a warped picture of a high-risk guy, i.e., someone who is not ethnically Japanese. if I run off, after all, what would happen? They get land, fully paid for. They get a house with 30 percent down already. Instead, the land lies as it is. I now save everything I make, looking to get the entire amount by working. I spend nothing any longer. No garments, no splurges in restaurants, no trips. The businesses around me could probably use my money. Instead, I am squirreling everything away, hoping to get that house built before I am 95.

According to Confucian thought, those who have no problems or appear too successful are in danger because the gods will look down on them jealously. People are encouraged not to flaunt their wealth or their success, though I secretly suspect it has less to do with a fear of jealous gods and more to do with a fear of getting mugged. In any case, the economy is at a standstill, and businesses are suffering a general state of deflation. I am at a standstill, and my land lies empty. I doubt the gods are going to get jealous just because a bunch of weeds have sprouted up. We are in harmony. Gee, I guess I really do fit in here.

[TABLE OMITTED]

ROBERT JUPPE (Cards on the Table--An Expat's Tale, page 33) came to Japan, as many, to teach English, but as something lower than an English teacher--an English teaching assistant. Unlike some writers who cover up their embarrassing classroom origins in order to look ostensibly cosmopolitan, Bob is open about it. Also, he is still doing it, although he is no longer the assistant. In this respect, he feels that he "has moved up ... a bit." During the course of his career in Japan, he has served as editor for a poorly circulated magazine that went bankrupt, written extensively for magazines nobody reads and just published two books whose runs of 3,000 respectively testify to the companies' outlook on prospective sales--basically, dismal to nil. Like a perky waitress in Hollywood, however, he remains upbeat. This is his first piece for J@pan Inc.