A personable, middle-aged woman, humiliated beyond bearing, bursts into tears. Her boss reacts with a crude male-chauvinist taunt, and fires her. Their tiff starts a scandal and stalls a nation's economic recovery, maybe the world's. A villain is arrested, more run for cover. This is the Makiko and Junichiro Show, and it has kept the Japanese population glued to its TV screens most of this year, pausing only for a midsummer break. The slot is due to reopen any minute now and, like all good soap operas, it's set to run and run. Even up in our little mountain village, my £150-a-year licence, cosy sofa and bowl of rice crackers give me the reassuring feeling that I really know what's going on in Japan.

LRB 17 October 2002 | PDF Download