Compared with the chaos that has engulfed Japan in the opening days of 2024, the final days of 2023 seem like a halcyon age.

Before an earthquake caused devastation across the Noto peninsula and Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516 narrowly avoided disaster at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, the biggest news item that preoccupied the country was the great Christmas cake scandal. After some 800 strawberry shortcakes arrived at households across the country damaged and misshapen, executives of department store operator Takashimaya bowed in apology at a press conference carried on national television.