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Amid Economic Woes, Japanese Brace For Millennium
Many people in Japan look to the millennium with foreboding; millions subscribe to the dire predictions of Nostradamus.
Start Date: 5/25/99
The Japanese economy remains mired in its worst recession since World War II. A report from the government's Economic Planning Agency on May 14 said unemployment was at a record high of 4.8 percent and consumer spending had plunged. Supermarket sales are down 8 percent from one year ago, marking the fourth straight year of declines. Department store sales are down 7.3 percent over last year. Corporations are struggling to downsize, and corporate investments in plants and equipment keep falling.
Amid all this woe, many Japanese people look to the coming millennium with foreboding. Waiting for the apocalypse has become a sort of national obsession.
The dark quatrains of Nostradamus seem to have special appeal. Books about Nostradamus and his predictions are everywhere -- two dozen titles were published in 1998 alone, and 11 more so far this year. Talk show hosts quote Nostradamus and discuss his ideas. Thousands of Japanese websites are devoted to him or to similar prophets of doom.
"It's excessive," says Teigo Yoshida, a professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University. "In times of social uncertainty, these theories gain popularity."
Although polls show that the majority of Japanese citizens do not take Nostradamus seriously, "more and more Japanese are turning to superstition," Yoshida says. "People's anxieties are pushing them to search for answers in the supernatural."
Sometimes, this obsession takes a truly bizarre turn. Consider, for example, the "Armageddon bra." The lingerie firm Triumph International Japan has reportedly announced a hi-tech bra designed to alert its wearer to incoming missiles and other objects falling from the sky. According to the maker, a sensor in the shoulder strap activates the warning. Recently previewed at a fashion show, the bra could be marketed later this year.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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