What aspects of everyday life are deemed to be essential in Japan? And, what, exactly, are “fuyo-fukyu” (nonessential or non-urgent)?

We were supposed to have learned the difference during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But have we forgotten already?

“Perhaps that is how I can best summarize it,” columnist Takashi Odajima (1956-2022) wrote in his book “Saikan no Uta,” in which he goes through social media posts to glean the zeitgeist of the decade from 2011, the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake, to 2020, the year the pandemic began.

As some examples considered to be fuyo-fukyu, Odajima cites the emperor’s birthday celebrations, events such as concerts and plays, and professional sports competitions.

Businesses complied with stay-at-home requests by encouraging their full-time employees to work from home, and schools canceled classes and switched to remote learning.

As for what was judged to be essential and indispensable to everyday life, Odajima observed with mordant irony: “Overcrowded trains, menial jobs for  non-regular company workers, politicians’ fund-raising parties, the prime minister’s dinner meetings with supporters, Olympic-related competitive sports events.”

Going through a list of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers involved in the slush fund scandal, I start seething with anger again.

While all of us ordinary citizens were gritting our teeth and giving up what we wanted to do, politicians were holding fund-raisers as usual and secretly amassing a slush fund, their excuse being that free political activity must never be interrupted at any time.

What an act of betrayal. How despicable.

The LDP’s negative attitude regarding the planned Diet's Deliberative Council on Political Ethics has left me speechless.

Still, I must firmly remind the party that the council is not a place for ceremonial “misogi” (purification).

In fact, all the council will do is to provide an opportunity for LDP legislators who have benefited from the slush fund to tell their side of the story.

In any case, the pursuit of truth and their responsibility must continue.

And frustrated and disgusted as I am, I still intend to keep my anger boiling.

Odajima once wrote, “Cherry blossoms die after one week because we Japanese get easily bored.”

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 28

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.