Same the World Over

Matt here.  It's been a while.  Just wanted to tell you about a conversation I had today with an old friend.

Last year I worked with a very kind and knowledgeable man who traveled to both of my junior high schools as a school psychologist.  He and I had the same long commute to my once-a-week school, so we often talked on the bus ride home.  I'm at a different main school this year, so I'm commuting to both now.  To my surprise, about five minutes into my trip home my old friend got on the bus I was riding.  It turns out he's working at the neighboring school this year, so we share a commute again.

We got caught up, and as we were discussing our new placements and situations, he said something that I thought deserved to be heard by more than just your humble narrator.  (What follows is my poor translation of our dialog.)  "My salary is reduced this year," he said.  I asked him to explain.  "I get paid from two sources.  The first is the prefecture, the other the Ministry of Education.  Because of the Tohoku Earthquake, our budget was cut and we're all earning less."

I nodded solemnly, as I do when someone brings up the quake.  "That's rough," I said, "but I guess I can understand the need."  My friend grunted and looked at me sidelong.  Sure, some time had lapsed since we'd spoken, but I guess he wasn't interested in formality and safe responses.  So I ventured the question that was on my mind: "Did the Ministry of Education take a pay cut?"

"The hell they did!" he spat.  "I don't think they know how to reduce their own salaries anymore."

I asked if the social welfare programs like his were the only ones to suffer, and he said there were a couple others, but basically, yeah, pretty much.  And so I wanted to post this, to reassure you all that while we devote plenty of column inches to how different Japan is and how nice, some things are just the same the world over.