Japan has a lot of leading industries and a social contract that depends on conglomerate careers for life. Nationalistic mercantilism makes enormous sense in Japan.
It sort of does, if it worked more disinterestedly, however the way it works grossly mismanages resources and is rife with corruption and you end up with the concretization and tetrapodization of the shorelines and community centers in the middle of nowhere. They could use these monies much more smartly.
> the concretization and tetrapodization of the shorelines and community centers in the middle of nowhere
I couldn't find a definition for "tetrapodization" in an economic or urban planning context (one of the top Google hits is your post), can you please offer a link that describes this effect upon the shorelines and community centers you speak of?
"tetrapodization" probably refers to the large concrete "tetrapods" piled up along Japan's shorelines as a preventative measure against erosion. Google "japan tetrapod' and you can find a lot of references - here is a Pink Tentacle article with a lot of pictures[0], and another article describing them and their history.[1]
Thanks, that's exactly it. Some tetrapods are effective against erosion control. But, just because they are effective does not mean they are needed everywhere nor is it clear we need to protect all places which do suffer erosion. It's a natural process -sometimes we want to curtail it, sometimes not. In Japan, it's almost always unquestionably "a good" specially when considered by the concrete industrial retirement complex.
Thank you much, that has got to be it. I found one 2011 estimate that the shoreline tetrapods are $6K USD each, but I didn't find much in a cursory search either for or against the evidence of tetrapods as useful erosion control.
Seems to me they're much the same as the riprap seawalls, jetties, and groynes you'd find down the shore in parts of the US. They're pretty effective, and USACE seems to approve of them being there.
