What interests me about Japan's so-called " {lost decade} " is that it was/is a time of abundant petrol, aged farmers + inexpensive ag-chemicals, a wholly one-class society, huge fish/shell stocks, corporate/urban techno-fix utopia + political power-grab, and raw materials + slave labor + grains from abroad, where people were/are able to stay busy and build/consume quite a lot and, furthermore, had/has around 5% unemployment, the lowest income inequality, healthcare for all its people, was/is one of the world’s leading exporters, high on life expectancy, low on infant mortality, is at the top in numeracy and literacy, and is low on crime, homicides, incarceration, mental illness and drug abuse.

In the grand scheme of the things, from a cursory glance things have been rather swell here in Japan.

Ok, now to what I think is here/coming:

* working well in to retirement age/less cushy jobs for college grads
* less inexpensive stuff coming from abroad/less exporting stuff to abroad
* aging fishermen, farmers, craftsmen and timbermen without inexpensive petrol
* healthcare for most people, but not for all
* depleted natural habitat fish stocks (as much as 1/5 + short-lived dependency on non-lasting expensive fish farms )
* reduced government ability (maybe more public service jobs, but reduced ability.)
* higher crime rate (if your house hasn't been robbed before, plan on it)
* neo-yakuza/martial arts
* an ever increasing disparity between haves and have-nots (part of wealth/power consolidation)
* stored wealth destruction... your pension, the value of your eco-car, the value of the hard cash under your futon.)
* a quickly expanding transient/squatting population (urban waterway ghettos)
* socioeconomic class formation w/ eventual leadership + platforms { movements }
* higher crime rate (general scamming and, if you haven't been purse-snatched before, plan on it, especially the elderly)
* worsening domestic violence/domestic issues
* urban/rural land value inversion
* expanding religious/cult/tribe/commune sects
* resource/ scrap hording
* investment in "shelter/tool shares"
* corporate/government land grabbing (this time for ag-lands)
* free TIME and an eventual reversal of de-population.

ken

Yep, stick to your choice Ken, if you feel in your gut thats the right choice, then it is! :-) 

On what's going on here:

A local television station is trying to make me (the garten) open resource, but I don't want to be. They've come by three different times with three different representatives asking if they can do a piece. But I like a small, smart audience; not a big strange one. :-)

ken

Collective enterprises are an alternative to working for someone else, without going it completely alone. These sorts of businesses have been very successful in some communities.  

Freedom from the tapeworm economy begins with decreasing the need for money.  The biggest step I can imagine is going the owner-builder route.  Instead of spending 1/3 of your working life paying a mortgage, spend one summer and build a highly efficient home that actually takes care of your human needs.  Without mortgage and utility bills, how much money do you really need?  Taxes, as Gomu pointed out, and the rest is gravy.  

The food-forest will require less input each year while steadily increasing in yield.  Nut trees are your retirement fund. 

Community living, sharing tools, space, knowledge and labor dramatically cuts down the cost of living without decreasing standard or costs of living.  

Obviously, we are not going to be entirely free from the global tapeworm economy any time soon.  We will need to interact with it, perhaps hold jobs, full time or part.  But every day we seek to extract ourselves a little bit more, putting energy towards an independent or interdependent future.  

Would it be possible/desirable to transfer the site registration to someone with a US address?