Japanese bureaucracy gone mad !!!

Here is an example that I discovered of the way the Japanese mind thinks 🙂

In Yamagata city (Yamagata-ken), the local officials decided to build a bypass road that ended up running into a
historical temple. The council had ‘assumed’ that it could be demolished, but of course the occupants refused to relocate, and private individuals in Japan seem to have a lot of power when it comes to being forced to change something by officialdom (just think back to the Narita Airport Shinkansen project !!!)..

So now you have a wide bypass road that just stops at a dead end 🙄

(WARNING – large 1600×1200 pictures)

This view is looking back up the new road from the dead-end junction.

This is what you see when you get to the intersection. The blue sign shows the overall situation how the road was supposed to continue onwards, and the red roof just to the left behind the dead-end is the temple.

The pictures were taken in March 2004, and as my father-in-law’s house is just up the road to the left (Higashihara on the sign), we go past this location very often on the way to the station – as at December 2008, the situation is still the same !!!

You can see the location on Google Earth at  38°14’41.41″N 140°20’29.58″E

The book Dogs and Demons by Alex Kerr is a good expose if you would like to find out more about the stupidity and corruption that is running Japan into the ground from the top levels down.

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Update as of October 2009 – it looks like common sense has prevailed and the temple has given in; construction has now started ..

Photo from the same place as the second picture above.

It looks like small patches of garden have been preserved !!!

Small children are entertained by watching the shovel in action 🙂