Bled white by the Second World War, Japan made a spectacular recovery thanks to technical innovations that were primarily aimed at improving day-to-day life for its population. Today, as the country battles with new social ills, such as a rapidly and inexorably aging population and deepening anxiety before a world in turmoil, to the Japanese, science and technology are the obvious solutions. Rightly or wrongly, they have no fear of machines – indeed, they are a source of fascination. As they use ever more powerful and ubiquitous means of telecommunication and move around in unreal worlds, could the Japanese be using them as a way of avoiding direct confrontation with others, or with themselves, choosing instead a virtual representation of an idealised being or recreating themselves in an ideal form?