FROM my window on the 18th floor of the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo, I saw that the temperature indicator at the top of the skyscraper across the street was showing a figure of 29 degrees Celsius. In the morning, that number would likely have continually moved up or down at short intervals. But not later that day, when the temperature in Tokyo was almost like the blazing heat of Jakarta.

My cleaning lady, a middle-aged woman named Matsu-sanshe polite