| On a busy October afternoon in Ark Karajan Place in the bustling Tokyo Metropolis, 70 people took their places, plopped down inside a taped-off square of floorspace and…did nothing. At first glance, there was nothing to link these people. This wasn’t a climate protest, or a political movement. They weren’t angry about the economy. They weren’t interested in gender rights, more days off of work or whether the trains ran on time. Their ages, backgrounds and even nationalities varied. The one trait they did share was a massive, near-overwhelming sense of stress in their daily lives. By taking a seat in a busy public space resembling not so much a zen garden, but a shopping mall with vines climbing towards high, vaulted ceilings, this disparate group was taking a stand against the noise of their own minds. This was no silent demonstration, but a fiercely competitive 90-minute challenge in which Japan’s most stressed out people came to do as little as humanly possible. | 