Japan's Nostalgia About Good Time of Bubble Economy

choi

In earlier today's posting, to the Economist article, I added Note "(c) The sectional heading 'There Xi blows' is a wordplay on there she blows."

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Mari Saito, An Intoxicating Era Bubbles Back; Creeping prosperity Has Young Japanese reliving the heady '80s. New York Times, Apr 6, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/ ... 80s-bubble-era.html

Excerpt i the window of print: Nostalgia for the last time Japan was on top of the world.

Note:
(a) Formerly with Reuters at San Francisco and Washington DC, Mari Saito is a freelancer based in Berlin.

(b) "Kaori MASUKODERA 益子寺 かおり [Kaori is Japanese pronunciation for 香; in reality there is no temple per se called 益子寺 but there is 栃木県芳賀郡益子町, whose name came from 益子氏 -- a samurai family since 10th century; both 町 and the surname is pronounced mashiko] remembers, barely, riding as a child with her mother, her hair teased and her lips bright red, in the family's convertible to the beach. It was the last gasp of the 1980s * * * A so-called Lost Decade 失われた10年 * * * later * * * She performs in a pop-music duo called Bed In that borrows heavily from the keyboard lines, electric drums and power chords of the ’80s. They dress ’80s, too: The shoulder pads are big, the skirts are mini and the hues are Day-Glo when they aren’t just plain shiny. * * * Ms. Masukodera, 32, wearing a tight blazer with jutting shoulder pads emblazoned with images of the Tokyo nightscape, paired with a miniskirt and gold jewelry. * * * Mai CHŪSONJI 中尊寺 まい [Mai usually means Japanese pronunciation for 舞], 30, the other member of Bed In ベッド・イン [katakana of Bed In] * * * Bed In’s latest video nods to the era by parroting 'trendy dramas,' a subgenre of TV programs of the bubble era that depicted the busy lives of young Japanese career women."
(A) tease (vt): "to comb (hair) by taking hold of a strand and pushing the short hairs toward the scalp with the comb"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tease
(B) tease (vt): "North American  backcomb (hair) in order to make it appear fuller  <her hair is teased into spikes>"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/tease
(C) Search YouTube.com with (tease hair).
(ii)
(A) There is ONE 中尊寺 in Japan.
http://www.chusonji.or.jp/ck/
(B) (850-  (寺伝による according ot temple legend); located at 岩手県西磐井郡平泉町; 天台宗; 山号は関山（かんざん）; 本尊は釈迦如来)  ja.wikipedia.org.
(C) The temple in "2011 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a part of the 'Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi 平泉[町].' "  en.wikipedia.org.
(iii) Day-Glo Color Corp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-Glo_Color_Corp
(In the 1940s, the company began developing a new class of pigments called daylight fluorescent pigments that fluoresce in daylight)
(iv) Bed-In
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed-In
(v) trendy drama  トレンディー・ドラマ
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E ... 9%E3%83%A9%E3%83%9E
("トレンディドラマ (Trendy Drama) は、1988年から1991年にかけてのバブル景気時代に前後して制作された日本のテレビドラマの一部を指して使われるが、和製英語である上に明確な定義はない")

My translation: Tendy drama means a kind of television dramas in Japan, produced during and around the bubble prosperity / boom (1988-1991), but because the term is 和製英語, a clear definition is lacking.

(c) Jim Breen online Japanese-English dictionary:
* wasei eigo 和製英語 【わせいえいご】 (n): "Japanese word constructed of elements from one or more English terms; pseudo-English word or phrase coined in Japan"

choi

(c) Jim Breen online Japanese-English dictionary:
* wasei eigo 和製英語 【わせいえいご】 (n): "Japanese word constructed of elements from one or more English terms; pseudo-English word or phrase coined in Japan"
   > The ja.wikipedia.org's definition is "英語に似ている和製外来語 [my translation: (look or sond) like English (but is not)]" whose example, among others, is オートバイ [pronounced 'ōtobai;' abbreviated from auto-bike] for motorcycle.

(d) "Japan is in the midst of its most prosperous period in decades, as the economy cranks up and companies scramble for increasingly scarce workers.  * * * [Yet] wages are barely rising [compared to 1980s] * * * and many [in Japan] feel that Japan's best days are over.  That feeling has helped fuel nostalgia for the last time Japan was unquestionably on top of the world * * * A popular comedian who goes by the name Nora Hirano has shot to fame by mocking the era with her boxy [definition by www.merriam-webster.com: 'resembling a box;' thanks to oversize shoulder pads] power suits and brick-size mobile phone. Her outfit became a popular Halloween costume last year.  Then there is the Maharaja. A disco chain that ignited a boom in similar clubs more than 30 years ago, Maharaja clubs have reopened across Japan over the last five years * * * Many young Japanese like to re-enact the era through wild limousine rides through Tokyo’s streets. Called princess parties by one event-planning company, they are aimed at giving otherwise frugal young women a chance to dress up and cruise the streets the way their mothers might have in another era.  'I wanted to do this one last time before I start working full time,' said Mirei Sugita, 20"
(i) Nora Hirano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Hirano
(ii) power suit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_suit
(may refer to: A type of office suit stereotypically associated with the 1980s. It is characterized by sharp cuts, wide shoulder pads and a stiff rigidity. For more information, see power dressing [where Margaret Thatcher is held up as a prime example]")
(iii) Maharaja マハラジャ disco chain has its name origin from
Maharaja
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja
(section 1 Etymology)

That is why ja.wikipedia.org for マハラジャ (disambiguation) says "大王の意味."

choi

(e)
(i) "Last year, the government introduced “Premium Friday プレミアム フライデー,” a program that encourages companies to let workers leave early one Friday a month so they have extra time to shop and contribute to the economy."
(ii) "Yohei Harada, who leads a team of researchers that focuses on youth culture at the advertising agency Hakuhodo [Hakuhōdō Inc 株式会社博報堂 (1895- ; based in Tokyo)]"

Yohei HARADA  "原田 曜平（博報堂若者研究所リーダー [katakana for leader] )"
(iii) "A group of high schoolers captured national attention last year when they channeled some bubble era confidence into this more timid time. Raiding thrift stores and their parents’ closets, 40 high school girls found enough power suits to win second place in a national dance competition set to the 1985 disco hit 'Dancing Hero (Eat You Up).' The video has been viewed more than 50 million times.  'I feel like back then, people weren’t afraid to be noticed,' said one dancer, Nanako Meguro [the family name is 目黒], 18, who recently graduated from Tomioka High School in Osaka"
(A) Japanese High Schoolers Steal the Stage in National Dance-Off. YouTube.com, published by JAPAN Forward on Aug 21, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxu_7kIvD2U
(B) Osaka Prefectural Tomioka High School  大阪府立登美丘高等学校 (1924- ; 公立; 男女共学; located at 大阪府南河内郡 登美丘 [to-mi-oka] 町)
(C) Yōko OGINOME  荻野目 洋子
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yōko_Oginome
(1968- ; The song that catapulted Oginome into the ranks of superstars was her 1985 release "Dancing Hero (Eat You Up) [The song's Japanese title is "ダンシング・ヒーロー (Eat You Up); lyrics are Japanese].", a cover of Angie Gold's hi-NRG song "Eat You Up")

Hi-NRG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-NRG
(iv) "When young people do try to emulate the glamour of the bygone era, they do it on tighter budgets.  On a recent evening, six university students picked through racks of colorful dresses in Nishi-Azabu, a tony neighborhood in Tokyo. Paying about $60 each, they can rent designer dresses and ride in a limousine for an hour as part of a princess party.  Anipla [no Japanese name; its website says its name is shortened from anniversary planning; based in Tokyo], the company that hosts the parties, said limousine rentals had become its most popular service in the last few years."
(A) "Nishi-Azabu 西麻布 is a district [neighborhood, actually; presently 東京都港区の町名; ka.wikipedia.org] of Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, which was a part of the former Azabu Ward."
(B) Azabu  麻布
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azabu
("The name Azabu literally means hemp cloth. * * * was a ward of Tokyo from 1878 to 1947")