The election and what the 1970s were like/選挙、そして70年代とはどういう時代だったのか

It's election time. My Facebook friend, data expert Inoue Shin, says that for the first time, 50% of the population is struggling to make ends meet. And even though prices continue to rise under the current Takaichi administration, her approval rating is incredibly high. Apparently, it's over 70% among people in their 20s and 30s. And if Japan were to start another war, and food imports were to be stopped due to Japan's low food self-sufficiency rate, the people would starve, and that would be the end of it.

I have a few memories from the '70s. I was born in 1967. Back then, Sendai Mitsukoshi proudly held an exhibition of Russian and Soviet art, and the branch manager even wrote a greeting in the catalog. That's unthinkable at the Mitsukoshi of today. There was a Russian restaurant called Yolka in the basement of Sendai Station. There was also an Utagoe cafe. I remember my parents taking me there and having a parfait. A singing guy was holding a microphone and singing.

My second-youngest uncle on my mother's side studied at the Faculty of Science at Tohoku University, was the chairman of the student movement, and was known as the "Marx of Kawauchi." Ultimately, the student movement failed, and my uncle eventually fell ill with an illness that gradually made it difficult for him to breathe, and he died alone in Aomori.

In the 1970s, elections were not held under the current single-member district system, which leaves many wasted votes, but under the multi-member district system, and we really felt that our every vote counted. That's why elections were so interesting. It was a time when people believed that a democratic coalition government would be formed soon. Everyone was full of hope.

Nowadays, the climate crisis alone is threatening to destroy the Earth itself. I don't want to live too long.

The photo shows the torii gate of Osaki Hachiman Shrine.

選挙です。私のFacebook友だちのデータ職人、井上伸さんは初めて生活が苦しくなったという国民が50%になったと言っています。で、現在の高市政権下で物価高騰が続いているのに高市政権の支持率は恐ろしく高い。20、30代だと70%超えるらしいです。で、日本がまた戦争を始めたら食糧自給率が低いので、食糧の輸入ストップされたら国民は飢餓状態になって一巻の終わりです。

70年代の思い出がポツリポツリあります。私は1967年生まれですから。あの頃は仙台三越でロシア・ソビエト絵画展が堂々と開催され、カタログに支店長が挨拶の言葉を書いていました。今の三越では考えられないことです。仙台駅地下にはロシア料理店ヨールカがありました。うたごえ喫茶というのもありました。両親に連れていかれて、パフェを食べたのを覚えています。歌のお兄さんがマイクを持って何か歌っていました。

私の母方の下から2番目の叔父は東北大学の理学部に進んで、学生運動の委員長で「川内のマルクス」と呼ばれていました。結局学生運動は挫折して、最終的に叔父は呼吸がだんだんできなくなる病気にかかって、青森で1人寂しく亡くなるのですが。

70年代の頃は選挙は今みたいな死票がたくさん出る小選挙区制ではなく、中選挙区制で、自分の一票が反映されているという実感がありました。だから選挙が面白かった。「近いうちに民主連合政府ができる」と人々が信じられた時代でした。みんな希望にあふれていました。

今は気候危機だけでも地球そのものが滅びそうな勢いではないですか。あまり長生きしたくないですね。

写真は大崎八幡宮の鳥居です。