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妄想の館ではなく、なんであろうか？
Eric C Says:
January 4th, 2013 at 11:48 pm
This discussion is getting interesting.
First, @33/Markus: Your point about there being a Western agenda in Japan is interesting. I agree that it feels this way. I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s useful for the United States to have the citizens of Japan believe they live in a real democracy. It’s also very useful to the powers that be in Japan to have the citizens believe they live in a real democracy. Of course, if you look closely at the situation in Japan, it’s blindingly obvious that Japan doesn’t have anything like a real democracy. As I’ve pointed out several times on this site, the real powers in Japan are unelected: the bureaucrats who populate the ministries and the business fat cats who are represented by the Keidanren. However, it’s also worth pointing out that some commentators believe that even these guys don’t really run the show. In a recent blog post, Karel van Wolferen (author of “The Enigma of Japanese Power”) argued that the United States has actively tried to prevent Japan from forming a coherent and meaningful government. He argues that it suited the Americans’ purposes to have Japan politically immature and even impotent, so that they could use Japan as a tool in their wider Pacific policy. Here’s that post for reference: http://www.karelvanwolferen.com/the-disabling-pacific-alliance/
Next, @34/John K and others: Yes, of course the world receives a distorted image of Japan in the media. Alex Kerr discusses the reasons for this at some length in “Dogs and Demons.” Kerr correctly identifies the source of much of this distorted reporting: Japan is filled with what we might call “house gaijin” (my words, not his). These are the equivalent of what used to be known as “house n***ers” in the slave owning south of the United States. These slaves were well-behaved enough to be allowed to work in the master’s house. Similarly, house gaijin are the various journalists and other media workers who live in Japan and earn a living by reporting on Japan. These guys quickly learn that Japan will spit them out if they deviate from the party line, which is, of course, “Japan is a wonderful place with an ancient and fascinating culture.” Full stop. Nothing more. And, as Debito pointed out above, the guys teaching Japanese studies around the world are also house gaijin employed abroad.
Finally, @35/Markus: Your suspicion that Japan is actually run by the yakuza is probably not far from the truth. At the very least, they are major stakeholders in the Japanese power game. Or, to put it another way, to the extent that anyone rules Japan, it’s probably the yakuza. When you look at the incredibly passive attitude of the Japanese, it’s clear that they are scared sh*tless of some power. The facile conclusion is that this is a holdover from the Edo period and earlier, when commoners could get their heads lopped off for speaking out. However, this is too easy. It’s clear to me that the Japanese are scared of a power that is still out there. And, it doesn’t take much observation to realize that this is the yakuza, working together with the uyoku (right wing). We know that politicians have been shot for speaking out and other people harassed to death by the yakuza or right wing. This is no secret to the Japanese people. My guess is that even the top ministers, the heads of the keiretsu and most politicians are either too scared of these guys to oppose them, or, much more likely, they are in cahoots with them.
I was once told by a very savvy Japanese guy who came from a political family that a lot of the high-profile deaths in Japan that are attributed to suicide are actually murders. That is, the people were pushed, they didn’t jump.
I once read that Japan is “a dictatorship without an obvious dictator.” Well, the closer you look, the more obvious it is that this hidden dictator is actually a coalition of the yakuza, the uyoku and the politicians and ministers who are deep in their pockets. As someone pointed out, the situation in Japan has parallels with that of the United States (I mean, it’s quite likely that the guys who pulled the trigger on Kennedy were mob guys acting on orders from elements of the American security state). But, as was also pointed out above, the situation in America is also quite different from that in Japan. In America, the average person does not fear opening his/her mouth to the extent that the average Japanese person does. The average Japanese person is like a mouse quivering under a sky filled with hawks, while the average American is like a deer in a place where wolves are only occasionally seen.
ニフコＪａｐａｎＴｉｍｅｓは日本に関する妄想を拡散するのに大変役立っています。ありがとう！ニフコ