When I was a student, which was more than ten years ago now, the average hourly wage for part-time work was about the same as a cup of coffee in an average coffee shop. To make it plain, at the end of the 1960s it was about 150 yen. 「Hi-Lite」 cost 80 yen, and comic books were about 100 yen. Since I just boughｈｔtｐｓ://ｒｅad•9９csw.ｃomt records with the money I made working, I could buy one record for every day-and-a-half of labor.

Now, compared to a 300 yen cup of coffee, the standard wage for part time work is 500 yen. It looks as though the market price has changed a little. You can buy two records with one days labｒeａd•９９csw.coｍor.

On Part-time Jobs

In this respect, I think Kenichiro Takemura (politico-economic pundit) and Kakuei Tanaka (former prime-minister) are amazing. Those guys, knowing fully that their figures were dubious, chose only to use numbers that said the situation was fine. If used only to that extent, well, justｈttpｓ://ｒｅａd•９９ｃsｗ.cｏm one notebook will suffice.

If you just look at the numbers, it seems like our standard of living has gotten better in those ten years. From a lifestyle point-of-view, though, I dont think things have really improved. In the old days, housewives didnt have to take part time jobs, and there was no loan-repay九-九-藏-書ment hell.

Translated by Christopher Allison

Anyway, I still remember the records that I bought with the money from the part-time job of my school days, and how I listened to them devotedly. But it wasnt their number or their volume that really mattered; the important thing was their quality.

by Haruki Murakami

Numbers areｈttｐｓ://reａｄ•99cｓｗ.ｃｏm really complicated. You cant always trust what the General Accounting Office tells you. GNP is a total sham. If they plopped GNP down in the west entrance of Shinjuku Station and let anyone who wanted to come up and touch it then I might have some faith in it. But short of that, I cant trust anything with so little substance.