Prime Minister Abe

according to a story in today's printed Japan Times, is planning ways to make "second chances" easier for people in Japan. A second chance means if you have started a business and it failed, or you were released from your your, you will have an opportunity to try again. At present, Japan's bankruptcy laws make it very difficult to recover from a failed business venture.

Hopefully there will be some real action taken on this. There was no real mention of exactly what Abe has in mind, but improved retraining opportunities, lower business license fees, and revised bankruptcy laws would be nice. A recognition of the fact that many permanent residents of Japan are in need of these opportunities too would be a good thing for most of us. Very few want to spend their lives teaching English---at least as it is done on Japan.