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世中を憂しと恥しと思ども
飛び立ちかねつ鳥にしあらねば
yononakawo ushito yasashito omoedomo
tobitatikanetsu torinishiaraneba
Though I am saddened
And embarrassed by this world
I can’t just escape
And fly away like a bird
Taking off into the sky
– Yamanoue no Okura (660-733)
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This is a poem by Yamanoue no Okura, included in the Man'yōshū as the "Poverty Problem Poem.” The Man'yōshū is an interesting collection of poetry. It was compiled at a time when the ruling class and the ruled were separated, yet t it contains neither the condescension towards the lower class nor the deference to the status or position of the upper class that one would expect in a volume compiled by the relatively privileged elite. When we wonder how the author, Yamanoue no Okura, felt about composing the poem and the editor, Ōtomo no Yakamoch'si, thoughts about compiling it, we can sense their ambivalence, as they were government officials who were often involved with the common people.
Then, as now, national and corporate policies are ostensibly created to support the population at large, but are, in actuality, based on myopic greed. Before we know it, people begin to be treated as merely means to create wealth instead of as ends unto themselves. When we begin to view human beings as "profit-producing tools," a system that prioritizes efficiency and eliminating waste over addressing human needs is formed. How did our ancestors who lived during the Nara period (710-794) deal with this predicament?
In line with Yamanoue's words, “I can’t just escape and fly away like a bird” people did what they could to save what they had. They resorted to a variety of tactics such as registering men as women, who were exempt from poll taxes, in the census that took place every six years under the Taihō Code. In the Japan of 2022, people scrounge to save money, working on the side, taking advantage of support programs, and trying to avoid taxes to the legal limit.
Eventually, however, many of our brethren 1300 years ago would try to escape. They knew they could not fly, but they could not subsist under the harsh conditions, such as famine and pestilence, they faced when combined with the onerous financial obligations they had to the government. They dodged census takers. They moved frequently and practiced slash and burn agriculture. The social turmoil that began with this escape of ordinary people in the Nara period was followed by changes in the social and legal structures to suit the times, and continued into the turbulent period of the samurai.
Even today, those who have the funds to flee do so, moving to countries with low taxes or keeping all their assets in the form of stocks, whose value they can borrow money against but are not taxed. It may be time for not only them, but also for those who, like Yamanoue no Okura, cannot simply fly away, to live in accordance with the tough and flexible way of life like the common people of the Nara period.
If, like the lower classes in Japan from 1,300 years ago, we take action and change the structure of our society, we might move on from the "lost 30 years" of Japan's economic stagnation, which has continued since 1990, to a turbulent era like the Warring States period.
May it be an era of hope.