SE : Since I've been here in Japan, I've had a few conversation with people concerning what they term " the Japanese identity crisis." It has made me think a lot. Of course it would be presumptuous of me to be expounding upon the Japanese psyche, but what struck me as I was driving into Tokyo on my first night from the Narita Airport．．．I was seeing the juxtaposition of a much older culture with a twenty-first century futurism.

What struck me was that, it seemed to me, the Japanese experience is one of an ancient culture that in one nuclear moment in August 1945 was blasted into the future. And if that nuclear moment, that awful and horrific moment in August 1945 was the birth of the new Japan, in a sense, Japan is a little bit like the two characters of "Coin Locker Babies." Japan is profoundly alienated from its own birth.

It may be that the most vivid way in which Japan can define its own identity is through a hyper-consumerism that it shares with America, actually. And in that sense, the teenage girls are engaging in the ultimate consumerist transaction. In a consumerist society, people become their own commodities. And we all trade on something; our intelligence, our talent, our charm. Some politicians trade on charisma, some on the ability to interact with the public. The teenage girls trade on their bodies. That is what they have to trade on. I was reading a letter in an English newspaper published here in Japan where some Japanese teenage girl had written in, saying," I don't sell my body because I'm poor, because I'm hungry, because I have nowhere to live. I sell it because I have to get that latest CD or dress." The consumerist pressure has become such that the pressure has to be satisfied. So her part of the transaction involves the only thing that she really has to transact with.

But the most profound thing about it is that while in the minds of the girls, the commodity of the transaction is their bodies, speaking as a middle-aged man, I know that what the transaction really involves is their youth and their innocence. That's the essence of their attraction, and so they are involved in a bargain that they don't really understand.

RM : The prostitution by teenage girls is a symbol of illness of modern Japan. Now not many people admit this, but the fact is that all they are doing is imitating. They are imitating the grown-ups. They are providing whatever they have in order to get what they want, for example, money and brand-labelled cloths, shoes, bags...etc. And these are exactly what grown-ups find value in. In other words, the Japanese people do not have the ability to "create" values, they just follow them. They can't find value in things that are not labelled already as exclusive or highly-reputed. When I say "brand-labelled," I'm not just talking about Chanel or Gucci. I'm talking about, for example, the Three Great Tenors, Wimbledon Tennis, Masters Golf tournaments, etc., etc. The Japanese tend to rely on whatever has already been established and ignore the rest. And if this is the way grown-ups are, how can you expect the children to be any different? Oh well, I guess I'm talking too much about the shame and wrong of Japan, so maybe we should change the subject here.

SE : I will just like to say that if there is a "Japanese identity crisis," by buying a label, you name yourself.

RM : May I add something as well? You've been talking about the Japanese "identity crisis" but from my point of view, I don't think the Japanese people have an identity in the first place. That's the problem. Now, an identity is something that you establish when you realize that there is "another," something that is different from you, and from that point, you start defining yourself. In America, there are all kinds of people, all kinds of religions. Here in Japan, though, basically all the people are the same. So how can we establish our identity without having something or somebody different? Gradually, the people have started to become aware of this and that is what bothers them. They are asking themselves, "Do we really have an identity?" It's not really a doubt of what you already have, but an anxiety towards the fact that they don't really have anything to start off with.