Yes! The media is a pernicious influence. We hear this so often, but it seems insurmountable and inevitable.<p>In Japan, the media is complicit in silence about many important issues, but it is also overwhelmingly positive in tone. Television in Japan is either hilarious, emotional, or informative. When I went to the US embassy in Osaka, they had CNN on in the waiting room and I wanted to weep for my countrymen.<p>It is like a poison gas in the air——you can know it&#x27;s there and that it&#x27;s not good for you, but that won&#x27;t alter the effect that it has.