There was an interesting article on August 21st in the Sankei Shimbun. This is an interview with Hideki Wada, a psychiatrist. Rui Matsukawa, head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s women’s bureau, has been criticized for a photo she took in front of the Eiffel Tower during her training in France.

He points out that it is easy for people to be born, and that this is prolonging the criticism of Matsukawa. It is said that there are two types of jealousy: the “Envy type,” which has the urge to destroy a successful opponent, and the “Jealousy type,” which is a psychology that tries to catch up and overtake the other person. In short, Japan today is an envy-type society. By the way, Japan from the post-war period to the collapse of the bubble economy is said to be a jealous type.

The Envy type tends to occur in a hierarchical society. The ambition to catch up and overtake is lost, and they come to hate successful people anyway, creating a vicious circle by pulling each other’s legs. Matsukawa’s actions are not to be praised, but they are not bad enough to continue to be denounced. However, in an Envy-type society, successful people such as politicians automatically become targets of hatred, so bashing seems to be constant.

I want to change this social situation. It is unhealthy and difficult to live in, and if things continue as they are, we can see that we will fall into decline in a fiercely competitive global society. First of all, it is necessary to know why the society that has been in the jealousy type has transformed into the Envy type. It is true that the economic recession, which has been called the lost 30 years, has had an impact in various ways, but what was the specific problem? Did the prolonged recession make people lose their ambition and lose their competitive spirit? Or maybe it’s because we forgot our dreams, hopes, and visions in the midst of social turmoil, and we no longer have anything to catch up with and overtake. Has the widening interpretation of discrimination and disparity caused cracks in the innate driving force of human beings? To create a well-being society, such discussions are indispensable. (Kei Kitajima)