Sudden Riches Creating Conflict and Self-Doubt; Nation Is Pressed to Define Its Values Series: JAPAN'S NEW ERA; The Power and Problems of Wealth Series Number: 1/3
Beginning next month in the ancient capital city of Nara, you will be able to buy a cup of coffee for $350.</br></br>Your Evian water will be heated in a gold kettle, poured through Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, dusted with real gold and served in gold-plated Royal Minton china. A genuine Renoir painting will hang on the coffee shop wall. And, as in many other such places in Japan catering to the very rich, you will be able to linger as long as you like.</br></br>"In and around Nara these days, there are many people with money, but they're not so good at spending it," said Nobuhisa Tomishige, spokesman for the department store where the coffee shop is located. "We hope to make their lives more colorful."</br></br>For 45 years, since the end of World War II, Japan doggedly worked to catch up to the United States, eschewing any other ideology and postponing pleasure. Now, many Japanese are taking a crash course in spending money, buying $2 million golf club memberships and $700 steaks, gold-wrapped sushi and mink coats for dogs. Japan, with 123 million people, has triple the net assets, per capita, of the United States, and its per capita income has also surpassed America's.</br></br>But this sudden wealth is creating new conflict and self-doubt within Japanese society, just as Japan is being pressed by the world to define its values and intentions.