Dai-Tōkyō Binbō Seikatsu Manyuaru

[Anohito]

This evening, while I was searching for something else entirely in Google*, I found something that eventually led me to the article at the following URL. As the article mentions, some of the series was translated in Mangajin, and that is where I encountered the series. As I've stated elsewhere, I usually try to avoid citing Wikipedia, but this article seems reasonably reliable. Does anybody else remember this series?

Dai-Tōkyō Binbō Seikatsu Manual - Wikipedia

*Believe it or not, I was looking for mention of a chain of Chinese restaurants in Tokyo (and maybe elsewhere) named Aster.

 

[yukio_michael]

I remember it, solely from Mangajin... 大東京ビンボー生活マニュアル。

Dai-Toukyou Binbou Seikatsu Manyuaru... Manual for living "poor" in Greater Tokyo.

I've only encountered a few isolated panels that generally have to do with the main character watching video tapes, or going to a rugby game, or eating this or that food...

One strip strip (as mentioned) has the character going on a video-holiday, while his friend is in cram school, where he stays up and watches all of his friend's video tapes (rather than paying to see a movie obviously...), etcetera.

Although Dai-Tokyo's main concern may be entertainment and political statement, it also serves as a how-to guide for pulling off a successful and happy poor lifestyle.

At present, while 95% of the commercial message in Japan is to buy buy buy, borrow borrow borrow... It may be difficult to sit there and imagine a shiawase binbou seikatsu...

It's no fun eating at 99en shop... Area, a publicaton in Japan published a more curious editorial on the "benefits of being poor"... About how a simple impoverished lifestyle was somehow honourable & meditative, and how they "love the poor!"

Bah... this manga is of course, not so indideous!

ed: I'll add that (like a lot of manga from Mangajin) that the original publishing date for this manga is the mid-eighties, when the economic situation in Japan was very different--- Japan was still in its bubble-era, during initial publication of this serial, and the idea was probably more of the case of rejection of wealth, rather than the pragmatism of dealing with the lack of it due to economic failures...

I can't comment really on the whole socio-political statement of this manga, but that's my guess, for the time frame it was published.

 

[epigene]

Although I have no knowledge of the publication, I think yukio_michael's assessment of the times when it was published is generally correct. The publication date falls roughly toward the end of "bubble economy" period and into what is called the Lost Decade (1990s).

The idea also reminded me of the term ﾂ青ｴ窶｢n (seihin), meaning "poor and poor." It signifies refusal of materialistic pursuits and emphasis on dignity and purity of spirit--a concept that I believe revived with the realization after tha period that material wealth does not necessarily bring happiness.