. . . What drew me was the sight of 20 or more big diesel trucks at the side of the road in the Aoyama Bochi area of Tokyo, many with their engines chugging away as their drivers mostly slept. Japan used to seem far ahead of the US in energy consciousness, but with wealth has come some American-style indifference to waste – hard to believe. These trucks haul dirt excavated from construction sites. They wait until the call comes to pick up the next load, then drive the dirt two or more hours out to a landfill somewhere in exurban Saitama. The man in this clip had previously hauled dirt from the enormous Roppongi Hills project nearby. Three years it took, three trips a day, for him and an army of other trucks to empty that hole. “Why don't people turn off their engines – don't they want to save fuel?,” I asked (his engine was off). “The company pays,” he told me. In the snippet here I tell him I've heard there's a shortage of truck drivers in the US at the moment, and ask if that's true in Japan. “Nihon wa amatte iru, gyaku ni,” he says (“just the opposite…there are too many.”) But it looks so prosperous, at least around here, I say. He agrees the buildings are popping up everywhere, so you can't say the economy's bad, but “minna nedan sageraretyau kara…” (“all of us are getting our prices knocked down.”) I've rarely met a Japanese businessperson willing to admit that business is good, but maybe this man is an example of the less prosperous side of the Japanese economic miracle. Still, he's got a job to do and never misses a day…