[FFML] Re: [FFML][Ranma][Dark?][idea] The Politics of Nerima

Ummmm . . . actually it's not really far fetched. Most construction in
Japan is 'make work' to keep failing business going. Before the 'bubble' burst in the 80's there was a lot of over-inflated prices put on land in Japan, and those land 'values'were used as the basis for loans. When land prices dropped, the lenders suddenly became vulnerable because their assets lost 50 to 90 % of their value in some cases. Dealing stricly with construction for now, the Japanese govt. has a lot of make-work projects (for instance building a flood control dam on a 'river' that's only a few inches or feet deep) which makes the business look solvent . . .this protects the bank, which lent the company money based on the inflated value of land the construction company owned. it's much more complicated than that and quite interesting to see how it all 'works'.

In one sense Ranma & co. would probably be 'welcome' (at least unofficially)because they would give work to construction companies.

The Japanese govt. covered up several major nuclear accidents so covering up Nerima events would fall in line with existing policy.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200209/04/20020904p2a00m0oa030000c.html

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17975/newsDate/1-Oct-2002/story.htm

A nice resource is:
"Dogs and Demons, tales from the dark side of japan" by alex kerr
it's out in paperback now and your library might have a copy.

as well there are a lot of online resources on Japanese politics, corruption and scandals:
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/features/0212/27scandal.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_13/b3725104.htm
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~jaytate/japanpolitics.html

IMO it's an interesting idea and not that unrealistic.

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