Despite some of the usual cliches making an appearance, this article by Charlie Brooker (though somewhat unpromisingly entitled "Green Kit Kats, toilets that lift the seat themselves, helpful strangers – Japan feels like another planet") is actually pretty well-observed for someone who, I assume, doesn't really know anything about Japan and doesn't speak any Japanese. The line at the end about asking a Japanese person for directions made me laugh out loud because it is so true: "And if after several minutes of peering at maps, placing phone calls, and umming and ahhing and apologising, they still can't provide a detailed set of directions, they appear to take it as a personal blow. In London, you'd get a smile and a shrug. Here they almost run away in disgrace. You actually feel guilty having inflicted that level of shame on them."
Unbeknownst to Charlie, however, is the added level of shame accessed by the fact that said Japanese person has just been asked directions by A VISITING FOREIGNER, IN ENGLISH- a situation which pretty much every single English textbook for Japanese students relies upon for almost every dialogue situation - and has failed to be of assistance.
This not only taps into years of probable insecurity regarding his/her English ability, but also makes him/her feel guilty for not contributing to making said foreigner's visit to Japan the best it could possibly be, thus negatively affecting said foreigner's image of Japan and Japanese people, thus almost certainly affecting Japan's recovery from the looming recession due to the very real possibility that said foreigner will go home disgruntled, tell his/her relatives never to visit a country populated by such unhelpful and imprecise citizens, and Japan's already flagging tourist industry will flail and eventually die.
