Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of letters.

Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of letters.

It's Thursday, March 23, 2023, and welcome back to Goodfellows, a Hoover Institution broadcast examining social, economic, political, and geopolitical concerns.

I'm Bill Whalen. I'm a Hoover Distinguished Policy Fellow. I'm your moderator today.

Joined as usual by the three stars of our show are Goodfellows. That would be the historian Neil Ferguson, the Geostrategist, General H.R. McMaster, and for reason, I'm not quite sure. The economist, John Cochran,

what are you doing in Tokyo, John Cochran? I'm visiting one of my kids who is teaching English

in Japan and having a wonderful time here and showing us around. So it's great to be here.

Do you have something special about Tokyo?

Well, can I give a, I have some tourist notes from Tokyo because I haven't been here for 10

years since before COVID and it's an interesting place to visit.

Message America, your cities, it is possible that cities do not look like zombie apocalyps.

There is no trash on the street and there are no trash cans.

Fascinating combination.

There is zero crime.

There is zero homelessness.

There isn't this sort of army of drug addicts and mentally ill people.

There are clean public restrooms anytime you need one.

If you go out and listen in the streets,

it's amazing how silent it is. Nobody beeps a horn in Japan. People are, of course, unfailingly polite

at everything. Taxi drivers and bus drivers are polite. People take pride in their jobs, even the most

humble jobs. I saw a guy directing traffic and doing so in a clear professional and proudly.

There's, of course, some signs of, I'm sure not everything is perfect in Japan. I haven't seen anybody under the age of 16 in quite a long time, especially in central Tokyo. But cities,

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