“FACTORY FANATICS.”

“FACTORY FANATICS.” As I posted here, Alain de Botton has written about “cargo ship spotters”—-avid fans of logistics in the same way that baseball fans are fans. Daisuke Wakabayashi had an article in the Wall Street Journal (January 24) about “a sightseeing trip catering to factory fanatics who caravan to Japan’s industrial hubs to gawk at the aesthetics of power plants, oil refineries and other smokestack facilities once derided as polluting eyesores.” There is a Japanese phrase– “kojo moe”— for “factory infatuation.” A book entitled KOJO MOE has sold over 30,000 copies. The book features “glossy pictures of rusted factories and billowing smokestacks.”