馬喰帖((Bakurocho Note

 Long ago, when indigenous people in Southeast Asia first encountered white colonizers, it is said they worshipped them as "shining gods." However, one day, the local leaders peeked behind the curtain of this divine facade. They saw that these "gods" had the exact same reproductive organs when they had sex, and excreted the exact same waste when they hid in the bushes to relieve themselves. The leaders realized: "Wait, they are exactly the same as us." In modern Japan, the central government ministries—specifically the Ministry of Education (MEXT) and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW)—are playing the exact role of these "shining gods." When they line up sweet-sounding phrases like "international contribution" and "solving labor shortages," we citizens are easily tricked into the illusion that they are benevolent deities working for the greater good. But peel off that gold plating, and what emerges is not a god,...

Once upon a time, there was a leader of a newly formed political party. He was originally a prefectural governor, but it is said he became astonishingly wealthy after becoming a member of the House of Representatives. A mere Diet member attracts far more money than a governor, the top executive of a local region. Why? Because national politics holds the "authority to create laws and move the national budget." Recently, whenever successive or current Prime Ministers generously pledge hundreds of billions, or sometimes trillions of yen in financial aid to foreign countries, angry voices erupt on the internet: "Don't throw our tax money away to foreign countries!" or "It's just a massive giveaway!" But I want you to think about this a little more calmly. They are by no means just "throwing money away" to foreign countries. That overseas aid is actually the switch for a massive "legal alchemy" designed to enrich Japan's elite...