今週号のエコノミスト誌は安倍首相が表紙
2013年5月20日
WHEN Shinzo Abe resigned after just a year as prime minister, in September 2007, he was derided by voters, broken by chronic illness, and dogged by the ineptitude that has been the bane of so many recent Japanese leaders. Today, not yet five months into his second term, Mr Abe seems to be a new man. He has put Japan on a regime of “Abenomics”, a mix of reflation, government spending and a growth strategy designed to jolt the economy out of the suspended animation that has gripped it for more than two decades. He has supercharged Japan’s once-fearsome bureaucracy to make government vigorous again. And, with his own health revived, he has sketched out a programme of geopolitical rebranding and constitutional change that is meant to return Japan to what Mr Abe thinks is its rightful place as a world power.【押さえておきたい単語】 **be derided＝あざけられた、馬鹿にされた **Chronic illness=慢性の病気、持病、 dogged＝くだらない人間、魅力のない、 **ineptitude＝馬鹿げた行為、 **bane=破滅のもと、**regime of Abenomics=アベノミックス体制、regimeは政権、**reflation=デフレの後の景気振興、リフレーション、**jolt the economy out of the suspended animation=jolt ～out で引っ張り出すという意味。**decade=10年。 **supercharged=溢れさせる **fearsome=恐れさせる。 **vigrous=活気に満ちた。 **health revived=健康になる。 **sketch out=概要を描く。 **Programme=計画。 **geopolitical=地政学の。 **rebranding=再ブランド化。 文体としては、それほど込入っていないので、上の単語を参考にすると、ざっくり意味が取れると思います。 この号のエコノミスト誌には別のセクション BriefingでもAbenomicsを取り上げています。その冒頭が面白いのです。 その国の経済政策による景気の変化をソープランドの価格から切り出すところ、流石はエコノミスト誌だと唸りました。 ここは敢えて単語の意味は控えます。ご興味のある方のみお読み下さい。
IN “SOAPLAND”—Sopurando, a Tokyo red-light district—the price of a basic half-hour “massage” has recently gone up for the first time since 1990. Demand for the top-end, “highly technical” massage service, costing ¥60,000 ($600) a go, has also been soaring, according to Akira Ikoma, editor of My Journey, which covers the sex industry. He says it is all thanks to the surging stockmarket. In Sopurando they are cheekily calling this reinvigoration “awanomics”, from awa, meaning bubble or lather. Elsewhere in Japan they call it Abenomics in honour of Shinzo Abe, elected prime minister in December 2012. Japan, Mr Abe declared as he took office, was back, and he lost not a moment in proving it. Having quickly assembled his cabinet, in January he announced a ¥10.3 trillion fiscal stimulus.