On the train recently, I found myself seated next to a young girl in her early twenties who spent the journey engrossed in a magazine. As I am quite a bit taller than her, it was inevitable that I could easily see what she was reading. It was one of those popular publications devoted to fashion matters. You all know what is in those magazines: page after page of smiling, slim young girls, attired in the latest styles and accompanied by descriptions of how the clothes are to be worn, and where they can be obtained.

When I think of the enormous amount of human resources and energy spent on the fashion industry, I sometimes find it hard to justify. For what purpose do we spend these billions of yen, dollars, pounds, and lire? Couldn't all those resources be used in some better way to improve our lives and society? Surely it would be better if everybody had a clothes closet like mine ... two or three pairs of trousers, a few shirts, and a couple of sweaters. Would that be so bad?

During the train ride, my thoughts were running along these lines. But soon the train reached the terminal, and we all poured out into the concourse, and then out into the sunny station plaza ...

And there, all around me, surrounding me in a sea of swirling colour and movement, the crowds of young people surged this way and that. Short skirts, long skirts ... plains, checks, stripes ... blouses, jackets, dresses ... all just like the photographs that had filled that magazine. Vibrant, young people ... radiating energy ... I wanted to kiss every one of them!

"Beautiful girls, walk a little slower when you walk by me ..."