AAPI: Okinawa

During this 30 days of celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures I am posting of Okinawa. Albeit a paradise it is one of the poorest nations in the world, it’s poverty rate far surpasses Japan. Pre-COVID the island regularly saw over 10,000,000 visitors annually. One of the burdens as to the cause of poverty on the island is the wide spread presence of alcoholism, the influence behind that is the fact the alcohol itself has excessive proofs per bottle that adjacently the cost is cheap. It is not outside the norm to run across an alcoholic drink volume over the 45 percentile range. Alcoholism is expansive to the length of the Prefecture declaring it a health emergency furthermore inhabitants are 2 times more likely to die of liver disease as a result of alcohol addiction than the entirety of Japan itself. Vice created a mini documentary several months ago on the subject. Japan and Okinawan culture is woefully immersed in the addiction of alcohol. It also has the second highest divorce rates than Japan and the highest rate of single Mothers all a consequence of alcohol abuse. What isn’t a direct result of the substance abuse problem on the island is the hourly wages are the lowest in the region.

Courtesy- VICE

Much of this problem began during and after the war, colonialism, tourism, western ideologies, etc etc. However with all of that said the Okinawan diet itself is one of the most nutritious in the world and Okinawans have among the best longevity rates globally. There was a documentary I re-posted several years ago which was centered on this fact as well as innumerable reliable news sources on this phenomenon.

Courtesy- BBC Visual and Data Journalism