Topic: Japanese life
Junko Sakai--->
Junko Sakai is bigtime in Japan and now NEWSWEEK is featuring her in their April 5 edition, page 9.
Letter From Tokyo: Loser Dog Nation
By Kay Itoi / Newsweek International / April 5 issue
This may be the year of monkey, but Japanese will remember 2004 as the Year of Loser Dogs, thanks to an ongoing national debate.
It started with Junko Sakai's book, "Loser Dogs Barking," out since October. Single and childless women in their 30s or older are makeinu, the author declared. It doesn't matter how successful, beautiful or happy they might be. They're all "loser dogs."
...nearly a third of Tokyo's female thirtysomethings are single. But the figure is 44 percent for men. (Loser dawgs?) Yet nobody blames them.
...Sakai's book has sold 150,000 copies---a big hit
... that's why "Loser Dogs Barking" has sparked such an uproar. Just as loser dogs can't live up to what society expects of them, so Japan can't deliver what's expected of it...Call us Loser Dog Nation.