Japan today is seen as a rich country in slow decline, in stark contrast to China, a poor country undergoing full-throttle growth. China has this week passed Japan as the world’s second largest economy, as measured by total GDP. But what is the ultimate purpose of the wealth that Japan has and China is striving for? Can slow-growth Japan revivify itself not by aiming for high economic growth, but by developing a new understanding of prosperity itself? Can it recapture the future via quality rather than quantity?
These were some of the questions underlying the Setouchi International Symposium 2010, held August 6-9 as the primary intellectual event of the Setouchi International Art Festival, the latest initiative in Soichiro Fukutake’s ambitious program of revitalisation of the island communities of the Seto Inland Sea. What is interesting here is that the qualities of place, as mediated by art, architecture, and landscape, are seen as being central to the project rather than relegated to their usual ornamental position. Julian Worrall’s report on the event appears in the Japan Times today.
In search of society’s true affluence | The Japan Times Online
