Translated version of Der müde Samurai-Text-1.doc
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In the first Buddhist festival of the year, the Japanese summon the good spirits.
It is an ancient traditional ceremony. It is said that it will banish evil spirits, and that once they are gone, there will only be room for happiness.
And so thousands of hands reach up for these little packets of beans. They will bring good luck to anyone who catches one.
But this year, these people have no idea what is around the corner. This was filmed just five weeks before the devastating earthquake hit Japan.
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Tokyo, five weeks later - after the forces of nature hit, people are trying to continue their daily routine. Nobody wants to surrender to the chaos of the disaster. The Japanese are in survival mode.
There seems to be little anger here. Few Japanese people dwell on their personal fate. Their resilience has surprised the world.
The situation is different amongst foreigners in Japan. Most have fled the country.
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Amongst them is Carol Hommerich, a German sociologist who works in Tokyo.  She has returned to Cologne following the disaster. Back in Japan, the forces of nature have shaken her world to its core.
Carol gives her ​​impressions of a country in a state of emergency. Japan has always eluded outsiders, even if they claim to understand what makes it tick.
OT 2 OT `00 Carolyn Hommerich, sociologist, German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo (German)
"I think the Japanese are less critical than the Germans. We would be asking what they are doing there, why there isn’t more information. In Japan they wait, it is accepted, it will not be questioned - there is a fatalistic attitude to life. If it were said, ‘everyone must get out of Tokyo’ they would all get out. Since that hasn’t happened, they all stay there and say it will all be okay.
Even before the big quake there was a deep sense of crisis in the country. Not only economic, but there was also a questioning of values ​​and ideals. "
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2011 was already proving a difficult year for Japan, even before the quake. In recent years the country has been facing a number of social challenges.
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Earlier in the year, the atmosphere was beginning to become tense in the island nation, not only in the capital Tokyo. The Japanese people seemed to be stumbling from one problem to another. The financial crisis had left deep scars. In comparison, the neighbouring countries of China and South Korea seemed to cope with the crisis with a youthful vigour.
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The Japanese were once obsessed with their goal of overtaking the West, but in recent times this vision seems to have lost direction.
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There has been a gradual descent into poverty, which many ignored, thinking it would only affect others.
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In many other countries the youth would be up in arms if facing this economic situation. For most here steady family foundations and a fixed job are only an illusion. Forty percent of young Japanese people have no permanent employment. But the Japanese suffer in silence. This is central to their culture.
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Speaking in Tokyo before the earthquake, German sociologist Carol Hommerich analyses the mood of the young Japanese population. She is shocked.
5 `02 OT Homme Carol Rich, a sociologist, German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo (German)
"It appears that boys in particular feel very unhappy, that they are suffering massive fears of descending beneath the economic level of their parents, and that they feel very strongly that they can’t participate in society. They feel impossible. I think there are various reasons. The labour market offers them no fixed positions. Having a steady job has always been expected. Without a fixed job, it is difficult to get married, you cannot expect respect from your parents-in-law. "
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Even without the tragic events of recent days, Japan is in transition.  The manga artists at this institute in Tokyo consign every social development to paper. Here modern chroniclers are trained. The cult of comics and print cartoons dominate Japanese culture.
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But how can they make ends meet? This young manga artist, Britney, explores the problem in her drawing of a "free age". It tells the story of the culture of young Japanese part-time employment.
Escaping from the rat race has been the only option for a lot of young Japanese in recent years.
Now the situation will worsen dramatically. In Japan, unemployment was already rising and now many factories and companies have fallen victim to the quake.
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Britney has previously slept in this karaoke box, because she had no money for a place to stay.
Today she is more secure, bringing out Manga books and looking after several blogs.
7 `14 OT Britney Hamada, manga illustrator (Daniela)
"Boys have the most money worries. In my blogs students write to me saying: What do you think will become of me when I grow up? What will become of our future; we will be able to survive economically? Using expert evidence, we then explain the problems that could still come to us ... but it will still happen anyway."
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Singing along to her ​​favourite songs in this karaoke bar allows Britney to briefly escape these worries.
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Sumiko Kawai is one of a million young people who have said goodbye to the old work ethic. She has five years of training as a director in California behind her: yet on her return to Japan, she has missed the chance to gain a foothold in the regular job market.
Sumiko lives in a flat that is only twenty square metres, which costs her the equivalent of 800 euros a month in rent. She says that one day she wants to escape from the claustrophobic narrowness.
8 `50 OT Sumiko Kawai, free sterols (Daniela)
"The accusations being made by the older generation are true. The boys are no longer as hungry for success as our parents' generation. We have so many interests, can speak other languages, and can do a bit of this and a bit of that. It irritates me that it was preached to us, "Be individual, go your own way, be modern”. Then you end up working in a company, being brainwashed to all be the same.  You just work until retirement, have a short break – and then die ... "
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On Tokyo's periphery more and more itinerant young Japanese are found, looking for a cheap night's lodging. A growing number can no longer afford housing.
Yoshitake Hashimoto had firsthand experience of what it is like to be let go by a company.
In search of a cheap place to stay for the night he has ended up this evening at an Internet Cafe - for just under 10€ a night this place offers a refuge for the homeless. Anyone who trips up in Japan can fall down very hard.
10 `08 OT Yoshitake Hashimoto, a former employee (slow) / Victor)
"When I reached the absolute bottom of my company, I visited the social services in my community. I had no money, no apartment. I wanted to apply for social assistance. (3 sec) But they just showed me the door. They said: You are only thirty-two years old, you're young, and you already get regular income. At that point I felt completely ostracised from society. "
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The next day Hashimoto meets with a trade unionist. It is the last line of authority in the battle for social assistance. After the quake this help will be reserved for only the truly destitute. Facing huge expense to rebuild the infrastructure, previous social policies have been washed away.  
11 `08 OT Makoto Kawazoe, freeters-union (Victor)
"In Japan it used to be very unusual that someone was unemployed. And that explains the mindset of the bureaucrats. They just do not take in what economic problems we face. There are so many young people who are dependent on social assistance, but the officials at the counter reject them.  Only about twenty percent are getting unemployment compensation. The rest are left without one yen and end up homeless. In addition, there is no money for social projects. Society is in a downward spiral. "
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Isolation, total withdrawal from society – it is a thought-provoking phenomena.
12 `05 OT Carola Hommerich, sociologist (German)
"A phenomenon which is also becoming more common internationally is the so-called ‘hikikomori’. These are young people who have often not left their room for days, weeks, and months.  They are completely withdrawn, completely isolated: maybe they still use the internet and communicate through forums, but after a while they don’t dare to go outside anymore. This is a very Japanese phenomenon. "
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Another worrying phenomenon is the increase in suicide rates in Japanese. This illustrator told in their manga the story of a man who is about to escape his family’s shame at his professional failure through suicide.
30,000 people a year take their own life in Japan.
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Fuji - the Holy Mountain. The forests at the foot of the mountain apparently have a mystical attraction for those considering suicide.
A sign asks people to reconsider their intent; another offers assistance to those in financial distress. Suicide is currently the number one killer amongst Japanese men aged between 25 and 45.
Each time a bus stops at the forest edge, voluntary forest guards look for people who may have come with sinister plans.
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Yasuhiko Kawamura comes regularly to guard this notorious place. Every year, hundreds of desperate people get lost here in the inaccessible jungle.
The guard scours the woods in search of suicide victims. He can still remember one case in particular.
14 `22 OT Yasuhiko Kawamura, Forest Guard (Victor)
"I still remember a man in his late sixties. He had no family left, no job, no money. He said, “all that is left for me is death, I must die”. I gave him over to the police. What has become of him, I do not know ... "
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The suicide of a man is one of the great social taboos in Japan.
The Mori family have recently lost their daughter to suicide. She was broken by the demands put on her as a woman in a leadership position at work.
There are too few doctors in Japan to look after every tortured soul.
And talking about personal problems is not a Japanese habit.
15 `28 OT Yoichi Mori (Victor)
"Our daughter was an excellent engineer. She headed a department and had several men under her; we were very proud of her. But she had problems from the beginning. The men couldn’t stand it when a woman did something for them. It is common to solve problems over a communal drink in Japan. But she couldn’t go out drinking with the men, and so she was mobbed. Our daughter was an old style perfectionist; she wanted to do her work to one hundred percent, but ultimately she was broken in the attempt... "
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So how is it that as a nation the Japanese are often capable of such perfect self-discipline in the most difficult circumstances? Is it the Buddhist tradition that gives the Japanese this amazing capacity? Or is it their national attitude of acceptance and the belief in resigning oneself to fate?
16 `35 OT Hommerich
"They do not publicly display their emotions in Japan, as we do in Europe.  So perhaps their silence after the recent disaster – we’ve been asking why they appear so calm and un-phased – is explained by this. One may ask whether it comes from their Buddhist traditions. I can’t really say, but there is firstly a kind of basic setting of accepting fate as it comes. The second thing is, it is the Japanese way to not rebel against it. I think that this is also the case for grief, for example.”
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It has been difficult for Japan to address its social problems. The steady pursuit of wealth and consumption has made ​​the Japanese unhappy, and yet re-thinking a national ethos is not easy.
Yet in the aftermath of the crippling earthquake and tsunami rebuilding their society is unavoidable.
Never before has the Japanese capacity for suffering been put to the test as much as now.
Report: Alexander Steinbach
Assistants: Susan Steffen
Camera: Alexander Muliar
Editor: Romana Meslitzer / Thomas Rützler