We produced this new issue of Purple with Japan in mind. We recently lost of our close friend Fumihiro Hayashi, the founder and editor of Dune, our favorite Japanese magazine. We miss Fumihiro dearly, and dedicate this issue of Purple to him. This past spring we helplessly witnessed the disaster that destroyed Northern Japan, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident. The careless use of nuclear energy is inacceptable to us, as are the profit-driven energy policies that engender it. We’re the first generation forced to live with a looming — self-made — disaster, in a Civilization of Panic. The idea of apocalypse is now totally embedded in everyday life. Yet we continue to lead our “cool” comfortable lifestyle, the cost of which could easily be a Fukushima-like disaster near Paris or New York City. We at Purple refuse to passively accept this hedonistic cynicism. Kaneto Shindo, the 100-year-old Japanese…