You can not trust the politicians, either

Yesterday morning, I had to run through a gamut of politicians to get to the station gate. Seems there is a city council election coming up. So now they care about getting votes. Not that I am eligible to vote, but you get caught in the fray.
It was the same before the general election. The politicians were meeting the people and telling them what they wanted to do. Not asking, even though Japan is probably unique in the world in having a party which is supposed to represent its members, without a previous ideological bias. Itis even called "your party", although the Japanese could also translate as "our party". Yes, the circles of the Japanese language can sometimes be as confusing as Facebook privacy settings.
But the politicians, even of "our party", could not care less about the voters after the election. Then it is "my party" - and they will party until the next election.
If you want proof, just look at the monetary policy that the Abe governement has instituted. Who says deflation is bad for people? If you have money saved, you get more for tour money. If your salary stays the same, you get more for your money. The money gets more valuable, because there is a fixed supply but the things it has to pay for more value. Although in Japan the money has to pay for less, with an ageing population that gets less salary and more pensions - which in Japan represent money already taken out of the system and put into an account that you can draw on when you retire. Although like everywhere else, the retirement system pays from the rent they get for the money. Which in Japan comes from buying bonds. So your children have to pay back the money. With interest.
But the money is bound up and taken out of circulation. So the remaining money increases in value, unless the governement prints more. Or stops borrowing, since that also binds up money (bookkeeping is simply making sure the debet and credit columns balance, even on a national level). But that is not likely to happen.
On the contrary, the politicians directed the central bank to put a lot of money in the credit column. And what is in the debit column? Governement bonds. An enormous amount of it. The result is to gradually introduce more money into the economy, as the bonds (and the interest) are paid. But since the bonds do not have a fixed interest, the interest can change, making the value of the money lower. Meaning things get more expensive, instead of cheaper.
Why is this goid for people? The stated reason is that it is difficult to sell Japanese products abroad. Well, just looking at the trade balance proves tem liars. While Japan bought for more than it sold, and had to borrow to finance it, it was not by an enormous amount as these things go. There is demand for Japanese products in the world, and with a bit of marketing there would be even more. And most of the cost is natural gas, but they raised the price of electricity and gas so we, the users, will have to pay for it. The natural gas, by the way, is needed since the nuclear power plants are still not restarted, and good riddance. Nuclear power gives a bad taste in the mouth after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. But we, the customers of TEPCO, are paying for that too.
The problem is not ours. It is the politicians, and big business, for whom we are just numbers in columns. Actually politicians would not have a problem if they were really working for the people, not big business. And that is the real problem.