<reponame>Xtuden-com/airwaves
{
  "id": "d851-74",
  "text": "MUSIC:\nimpressed by its apparent peace and contentment. Despite\nmany problems, the Japanese still smile more than most\npeople. Public officials — at least those with whom the\nvisitor comes into contact — are courteous and friendly.\nAnd to a unique degree the whole Yamato race gives an impres¬\nsion of being interested in the visitor's comfort and\ncondern to make the stranger feel welcome.\nAdd to that the quiet beauty of the country, a deep sense\nof tradition and timelessness, plus the simplicity and\ngraciousness of Japanese life at its best, and it is not\ndifficult to understand the impact v/hich Japan makes upon\nmany foreign minds.\nTHEME UP AUD OUT\nVOICE III\nJapan is an Asian nation inhabited by a race of people who\na century ago were living in, and conditioned by, an\nagrarian economy which had remained unchanged through\ncenturies. Then came the Meiji miracle — and railroads,\nspinning mills, shipyards, modern armaments, big business,\nparliamentary government, hydro-electric plants, diplomacy,\nexports and imports, a growing bureaucracy, and the\nWesterners with their new ideas.\nAlmost overnight, as the\nprogress of nations is measured, everything changed. Every¬\nthing, that is, except the people of Japan, who continued\nto order their lives in accordance with 17th century\nnotions, traditions and beliefs even as they tended 20th\ncentury machines and by their energies transformed this nation\nfrom a primitive agricultural economy into a world power.\nWhile this country lags behind the West in some aspects\nof government and social consciousness and technical skills,\nit has on the other hand retained enough of the former\nJapan and its graces to remind one that its life is still"
}