For The Record

It has been decades since the NYT has had a journalist as good as Hiroko Tabuchi working in its Tokyo bureau.

That is why I can get upset at an article with her name on it.

Also for the record, the prefecture with the worst ratio of children on waiting lists for public daycare to population is Okinawa -- a not surprising situation given Okinawa has the high birthrates and lowest median incomes among the prefectures. In Okinawa at least, the argument that low incomes for men push women into the workforce is clearly valid. However, the need for two incomes in Okinawa is chronic, not the result of erosions of incomes and job security after the bursting of The Bubble.