It is common knowledge that the Japanese economy is in crisis. Articles and commentary regularly follow the indices of Japan's slump and the precarious state of its banking and financial system.
Analysts nervously debate the economic policies of the government.
They are acutely aware that a further sharp decline of the world's second largest economy, a major financial collapse or a free-fall in the value of the yen, will reverberate internationally. But, the mass media, both inside and outside of Japan, has little or nothing to say about the impact of Japan's protracted economic recession on the lives of ordinary working people. A mood of unease and uncertainty pervades the society which was hailed only a decade ago as the prime example of successful capitalist development. Already there has been a profound political impact. The LDP won only 44 of the 61 seats it had hoped to gain, humiliating Hashimoto and forcing him to resign.