Yusuke Narita, a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a current professor at Yale, is making the rounds again with comments on the current state of his homeland, Japan.

Dr. Narita, who may be unknown to western academic and cultural circles – is well known in Japan for his comments on modern Japanese society, government, and more.

Typically wearing his signature square and circle glasses (seen above), Narita is also not afraid to speak his mind, which has led to him gaining quite the following on Twitter/X, amassing over 700,000 followers to date.

While Narita’s comments typically cut right to the point, some of them have been considered controversial, and his latest thoughts on the state of Japan are quite scathing.

“Japan is a country without powerful people,” Narita said in a post. “There is no last boss to control politics, and even the prime minister is made fun of by the ordinary people for the way he eats rice balls.”

If you thought the opening to his first public comment of the New Year had enough criticism, hold on as Narita went further into modern, popular Japanese culture.

“Celebrities who seem to be at the top of the entertainment industry also die (commit suicide) instantly after a weekly magazine article,” Narita said. “There are almost no real rich people, and the number of billionaires per population is overwhelmingly the lowest in the G7.”

Narita’s comments on the number of actual wealthy people in Japan comes from his background in economics, as both his graduate and doctoral program focused on these subjects. The last bit of his thoughts, however, is possibly the most critical.

“Japan is a country of equality where everyone is helpless and everyone is poor,” Narita concluded.

It’s worth pointing out Narita’s comments arrive after a lengthy period of an extremely weak Japanese Yen.

In recent month and years, the exchange rate of Yen to US Dollar has been averaging 140-150 yen to the dollar. Most recently, the yen has been trending towards 160 yen to the dollar, the weakest it’s been in decades.

The weak yen has led to a tourism boom in Japan, which came alongside the ending of COVID-19 restrictions, but has led to numerous problems for natives of the country, financially and culturally.

Though Narita has a background in economics and focuses on this with his teachings and research, he naturally comments on other hot topics in Japan – like the country’s growing population of seniors.

Previous comments from Narita on the subject got widespread criticism when he suggested options like mass suicides – citing the 2019 film Midsommar as an example.

Narita has said those comments, made years apart, were taken out of context and he mainly wants to address the growing effort to push the oldest out of leadership positions in both government and business.

Japanese netizens seem mostly negative in their response to Narita’s latest comments, saying things like “Don’t be fooled by Narita, everyone!” and “But why is such a country the most attractive?”, among other comments.