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Introducing Doraemon Economics
Why modern economics resembles the Japanese cartoon world of Doraemon.
In 1969, two Japanese comic artists created a comic series called Doraemon. Pronounced with four syllabus, ‘do-ra-e-mon’ is also the name of the blue, chubby robot that appeared in the stories as a key character.
Doraemon is a robot from the future, sent back in time by its owner to help his great great grandfather — Nobita Nobi — change his life for the better.
As a young boy, Nobita was weak in character and lazy. As a result, he landed up in great debt, which burdened his descendents all the way to the year 2112. Seeing no way out other than to change the course of history, his descendants decided to send a robot back in time to change their ancestor’s foolish habits.
Borrowing from the future to solve today’s problems
The plot behind each episode of Doraemon is simple and repetitive. The silly Nobita gets into some sort of trouble or suffers bullying. Doraemon comes to the rescue by whipping out some sort of incredulous gadget — from a magical pouch built into his belly — to solve the problem.
These gadgets are actually from the future that Doraemon came from, where technology has advanced to the point that…
