Another Type of Stress

I hate stress.  You hate stress.  Let’s be honest, nobody enjoys stress.  However, there are different definitions of stress.  Besides the common definition of stress as a hindrance on the mind of a person it can also be used to show the “importance attached to a thing, or significance, meaning,emphasis, consequence; weight, value, worth.”  Some people say stress over the menial is wrong and that people don’t stress the important,  but it’s time to clear this up.  When we neglect to focus on the small and ignore those little things, then we will eventually drive ourselves insane without our knowledge of doing so.  It is significant to take value in all the small parts of life and never take anything for granted, yet people are taking their focus and effort and setting aside too much time for only the big things in life.  For all of this I am not discussing focusing on a specific object such as a diamond ring versus a piece of toast, but rather the ideas and values that go behind it.  Obviously spend more time on the diamond ring and put your effort into that, however the ideas behind the toast can be stronger and have a longer lasting effect on a person than the diamond ring.  Besides marriage, a diamond ring doesn’t set a mentality up.  It is so expensive that buying one becomes an inconsistent process, however the piece of toast can completely change your life.  When you choose to make a piece of toast in the morning, you are choosing to set up your day and put enough energy within you to make it to lunch.  This is the mentality that you want raise your mental and cognitive state of mind so that you can succeed. Putting stress on the little things in life can form positive patterns that eventually will lead to not having to even think about those things.  The cliché holds true that every little detail counts and placing an extra emphasis, or stress on those can be more rewarding than you will ever know.  Always remember that it’s the little things in life that truly make a person happy and that make a person’s life whole. 

Do not stress over the small details, but rather stress the small details and make them important.  Do no let the seemingly big things take away all your time, for one day you will realize that the little things are the true big things.

Stress in Japan? Not that bad.

In this day and age people are stressed and so are countries.  The bottom billion of the world are caught within four traps that are making their life quite stressful, but the country I will explore, Japan seems to have successfully avoided all four of these traps and is not nearly as stressed as the bottom billion. 

Japan does not fall under the conflict trap, however Japan is experiencing external conflict with China and Japan.  Japan and China are currently dealing with a century long dispute over the Diaoyu (Chinesename)/Senkaku (Japanese) islands in the East China Sea.  Both countries claim ownership of these islands and neither side is willing to loosen its grasp on them.  These islands provide many resources such as oil and fishing that makes them valuable to each country.  In response to this conflict, riots are breaking out throughout China where the Chinese are burning Japanese flags and destroying Japanese shops in China.  China is now trying to control large and dangerous anti-Japanese protests, which largely consists of burning down and destroying Japanese factories such as car dealerships, which is an especially big problem since Japan has $12.6 billion of investments in China.  Many protesters from both Japan and China are traveling to the island and trying to declare them either Chinese or Japanese.  To add to this, the Japanese have another dispute with South Korea over the Dokdo (South Korean name)/Takeshima (Japanese name) islands.  Japan is becoming more and more isolated in East Asia as it has territorial disputes with most of its neighbors, however, internally Japan is extremely stable and hasn’t had any notable internal conflict for hundreds of years.

Japan also does not fall under the natural resource trap.  Japan is an industrial country that focuses on motor vehicles and electronic equipment.  Japan is not abundant with natural resources as 21.2% of Japan’s imports are petroleum and natural gas.  Japan also doesn’t feel the same effects of natural resource trap with automotives.  Japan is not fully dependent on the export of motor vehicles and its economy is made up of multiple different industries.  Japan feels no sense of Dutch Disease.  Due to the lack of natural resources Japan has fallen into conflict with countries over the natural resources of neighboring islands.

                Japan is the epitome of the opposite of the landlocked conflict due to the fact that Japan is an island and locked by water on every side.  Japan can tap into world economic growth and trade with whomever Japan wants to.  The infrastructure in Japan is also at a superb standard. 

                Japan’s governing for the most part has been pretty sound.  Recently there were elections that put in place the old government of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party lead by ShinzoAbe, replacing the Democratic Party of Japan.  The LDP plans on shaking off Japan’s economic stagnation and keeping a tough stance with China over the islands in the East China Sea.