A Changing Era on a Summer Beach: A Familiar Scene, Seen from the Other Side

The heat got the better of me, so I went back to the beach for the weekend.

When I was younger, going to the beach meant going for a swim. Not anymore.

These days, I am perfectly content just walking along the shore and listening to the waves. The way I spend my days off has changed considerably with age.

As always, the beach was crowded with young people.

Loud music, apparently from a live performance, was blasting from one of the beachside huts. It felt like summer in every sense.

As I walked along the water’s edge, one group caught my attention: two white men and two young women who appeared to be Japanese.

The men were not Hollywood-style heartthrobs. They looked more like ordinary, overweight, middle-aged men.

Of course, I had no idea what kind of relationship the four of them had. They might have been teachers and students, or perhaps coworkers.

Maybe I was reading far too much into a scene I knew nothing about.

Even so, the moment I saw them, one thought came to mind:

Japan really has become poorer.

The Scene Used to Be Reversed

At that moment, I remembered the stories I often heard years ago.

Back when Japan was still considered a wealthy country, there were stories of Japanese men traveling to Southeast Asia and being seen with young local women.

Of course, this did not describe everyone. Still, stories of men using their greater spending power to buy sex, or entering arrangements resembling what Japan now calls “papa-katsu,” were hardly rare.

Today, it is not unusual to encounter online advertisements in Japan for compensated dating or exclusive matchmaking services aimed at wealthy clients.

I have no intention of telling other people whom they should date or what kind of business they should pursue.

But I could not help wondering about one thing.

How did young people in Southeast Asia feel when they saw those scenes at the time?

What did it feel like to see young women from their own countries walking alongside foreign men with stronger currencies and greater spending power?

Did they feel envy?

Resignation?

Or a frustration they could not put into words?

When Economic Decline Becomes a Visible Scene

Every day, the news talks about the weak yen, falling real wages, and declining purchasing power.

I can understand those issues when I see the charts and statistics. Yet they can still feel like events taking place somewhere far removed from everyday life.

What I saw on the beach felt different.

Perhaps it was nothing more than my own assumption. Even so, when the idea appeared before me not as a number but as a scene, the phrase “a country becoming poorer” suddenly felt real.

When a country loses its prosperity, the consequences may extend beyond rising prices or making overseas travel less affordable.

It may also gradually change how people relate to one another and where a country stands in the world.

The summer beach was as lively as ever.

Music drifted from the beachside huts, and young people laughed together.

On the surface, nothing about the scene had changed.

Was it Japan that had changed, or simply the way I now saw it?

I still do not know the answer.