Word: osaka
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...quarter of a century later, Hideyoshi's successor as shogun, arch-isolationist Tokugawa Ieyasu, built a stronghold at Nagoya, 100 miles northeast of Osaka, Ieyasu wanted neither conquest nor foreign trade; he clamped the lid on Japan, and his family kept it there for 300 years. Like Osaka, Nagoya grew up in the image of its maker. Nagoyans put classical poems, flower arrangements and the complex subtleties of the Japanese tea ceremony ahead of commerce and industry; they dislike to hustle; there is still a feeling that trade is somewhat vulgar...
...difference between Osaka and Nagoya goes straight to the heart of the Japanese character. The Japanese are a people with a split personality, and Osaka and Nagoya are extreme examples of their duality. The Japan of Osaka is progressive, militant, competent, rude. The Japan of Nagoya is hidebound, passive, polite and wary of outside influences...
Ghosts in the Summer. During the war, U.S. bombing strikes destroyed 300,000 of Osaka's houses, left only 10% of its factories working. Now, four years later, Osakans already have built 100,000 new dwellings; 9,300 factories are back in operation, sending steel pipe to Arabia, chinaware to the U.S., locomotives to Russia and Siam, textiles to Nigeria, Hong Kong, Pakistan and the Middle East...
...Osaka's sleek, well-run subways, sweating crowds pour downtown during the early morning commuting hours. Many of the men wear shorts and Frank Buck-style pith helmets; Osaka's prostitutes are almost the only women who still wear the traditional Japanese kimonos; girl office workers do the best they can in makeshift "new look" dresses...
Despite the business-and-fun-as-usual, Osaka, like the rest of Japan, is suffering from severe economic cramps. Last winter, government subsidies were cut drastically and Japanese industry had to stand on its feet or collapse. Osaka unhesitatingly initiated harsh "rationalization" measures, including longer working hours and some firings...