Through rediscovering Kyoto and traveling across Japan after a serious illness, the author challenges Nordic-centered happiness theories and argues that Japan has embodied such values since ancient times.

Of course, it goes without saying that it would be better to visit Kyoto, Shiga, Nara, Ise Grand Shrine, and Ise-Shima National Park on every holiday.
2016-11-21.
About ten years ago, when I made my third rediscovery of Kyoto, I visited Kyoto’s shrines, temples, and gardens every weekend, carrying a Casio digital camera that I was using for work at the time.
It would be no exaggeration to say that there I began to encounter a reality completely different from the perceptions that had been unconsciously instilled in me during my long years as a subscriber to the Asahi Shimbun.
Yesterday, trusting the weather forecast that said it would be sunny in the morning, I had planned to enter Ishiyama-dera Temple right when it opened at 8 a.m.
I had been practicing going to bed early and getting up early for several days, so getting up posed no problem at all, but my close friend said, “That’s too early, give me a break.”
So, thinking I would kill time, I read the Asahi’s book review section, which I have recently been skimming diagonally (since I realized that the writers of this section are the so-called Asahi Shimbun cultural figures, I have done nothing but skim it, and yesterday was no different.
About ten years ago, after my third rediscovery of Kyoto, I suffered a serious illness in 2011 and was told I had only a 25 percent chance of survival, spending seven months hospitalized, but after being saved by doctors who graduated from Kyoto University’s medical school, I was completely cured and discharged on 2011/12/16, and since then my visits and explorations of Kyoto, Shiga, and Nara accelerated even further.
Was it the following year that I spent 300 days a year on that purpose.
I want to convey my firsthand impressions to the following reviewer and to all the Asahi Shimbun subscribers who read this book review.
People Who Are Almost Perfect Why Is Nordic Life the Happiest in the World?
Michael Booth, author.
Reviewer: Izuru Kato, Chief Economist, Totan Research.
Preface omitted.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
In the end, the author concludes that since “Western countries are seeking something to replace the unrestrained capitalism that has driven their economies to ruin,” the Nordic countries are not “perfect,” but that their “way of life, their prioritization and handling of wealth, their methods of making society function better and more fairly, balancing work and private life, acquiring education effectively, and supporting one another” should be emulated.
Omitted.
Even if it is natural that the author knows nothing about Japan, it is no exaggeration to say that Asahi Shimbun subscribers, the reviewer Mr. Kato, the Asahi Shimbun’s editorial writers, and the so-called cultural figures who agree with them also know nothing at all about Japan.
I want to tell the author that Japan is a country that had already mastered these methods since ancient times, and therefore is a country where the turntable of civilization is turning.
I want to convey exactly the same thing to the reviewer, Mr. Kato.
In particular, I would like to recommend to Mr. Kato that since you have more time and money than ordinary people, you should try traveling all around Japan at least once.
If you say you do not have that time, then at the very least, why not watch the entire series of “Otoko wa Tsurai yo” once.
Like me, you can watch it repeatedly, and you should also watch the entire “Tsuribaka Nisshi” series and the entire Shacho Manyuki series.
If you do so, you will properly come to know Japan.
Of course, it goes without saying that it would be better to visit Kyoto, Shiga, Nara, Ise Grand Shrine, and Ise-Shima National Park on every holiday.