Like the visceral claim Kennedy’s moonshot vision had on the American public, Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda’s vow in 1960 to double the income of Japanese citizens in 10 years had a powerful appeal. Emerging from the rubble of bombed-out Tokyo in 1945, Tokyo of 1964 beamed and blushed like a debutante, welcoming the world of sport with equal parts fear and pride. The leaps and bounds with which the Japanese economy grew in the early 1960s gave the Japanese the confidence again to aspire to a respected place in the world community. The generally humble Japanese, only a couple of decades removed from wartime defeat and devastation, believed that “ooki koto wa ii koto da”, or loosely translated, “the bigger the better!” Here is an example of Japan’s rising confidence in this television commercial from Japanese sweets manufacturer, Morinaga.