Yoshie- I would say Miyabe's book gives a very different view of consumer credit
in Japan than what you put forward. It does argue that there are a group of
people who do not go for credit cards, but this is not due to their
unavailability, etc. I will try to type a few paragraphs in later. Some history
is provided, via the lawyer character explaining some stuff to the detective. It
talks of big crises in the early 80s and early 90s, but also talks about the
beginnings in the early 60s. The book also goes into the whole issue of family
registers and legal identity, also focusing on bureaucracy. Supposedly Miyabe's
written lots of books that have been made into movies. Do you know if any of
these ones we would have seen (e.g. Tampopo, Accountant's Wife, etc.)?
