These are dark days in Japan. Over the holidays,rnan encampment for laid-off workers sprang up in Tokyo's Hibiya Park, just steps from the Emperor's digs in the Imperial Palace. Across town at the Kanda Myojin Shrine, nearly 100,000 salarymen turned out on the first work day of the year to pray for business success. And in the suburb of Chiba, the Kurata family skipped the big January sales at department stores and pulled the plug on an annual trip to see relatives in Kochi, 550 miles west of the capital. "My husband's winter bonus was much lower," says Azusa Kurata, a 48-year-oldhomemaker. "And things aren't getting any better soon."
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