Japan has a bureaucratic system much like those in other countries in the World. Kurosawa attacks the inefficiency and corruption that can be associated with all of the red tape. In this scene, we see how artfully different bureaucratic departments differ responsibility when a group of concerned mothers reports a sewage pool in the streets. Each man that turns them away has a different department to refer them to; no one seems to care about the problem and will only put in enough effort to get the concerned mothers to leave. After going to see seventeen departments, including a ward representative and deputy mayor, the women finally snap. The women represent Kurosawa's and probably other Japanese people's frustration with problems in the new post-war government. This film was made in 1952, so the reconstruction of Japan and her government was still fresh. Kurosawa, no longer hampered by wartime censorship, crafts his film around the uselessness of certain aspects of Japanese government. One should also note that all of the people working at the desk who "help" the women are men. During this time in Japan, there was a great disparity between the number of men and women in the workplace. We can also notice that the women are all concerned mothers who are at home and in touch with the issues of the neighborhood, while the men, who are charged with running and protecting the public welfare, are apathetic and only brush the women off. We are also shown the heat, mosquitoes, and rain that the women must endure during their run-around. This gives an idea of the different climates and seasons of Japan. When the women finally explode in anger at the last clerk, we should note the warm clothing they are wearing. This gives us the sense that they have had to tolerate the constant dismissals, let alone the initial problem of the cesspool, for around a year. This passage of time is subtly crafted into the film and is indicative of Kurosawa's skill as a director.