Who cares about being woke? Dukas/Universal Images Group /Getty Images
When I first came to Japan, about 23 years ago, I watched an episode of a highly popular TV drama, set in a kindergarten, which featured a once-happy toddler who had suddenly become withdrawn. The staff couldn’t understand what was wrong, but it soon emerged the problem was his mother, who had selfishly abandoned her household duties to pursue a career. The horror! She was called to the school and, upon reflection, decided that she ought to give up her job and concentrate on her housewifely duties.
On the surface, Japan appears to have progressed a lot since then. The latest Japanese TV drama Modern Love (a sort of Japanese version of Love Actually) features a lesbian couple who are raising a child. Male homosexuality has featured on TV before and lesbianism is hinted at strongly in the ever-popular Takarazuka theatre (an all-female musical theatre troupe). But Modern Love is the first frank depiction of lesbianism on mainstream TV.
Japan is also starting to see the sort of identity-based skirmishes that are common in the West. Novelist Mieko Kawakami made headlines when she dared to interrogate prize-winning author Haruki Murakami over the depiction of female characters in his novels. During the pandemic, she also criticised the government’s Coronavirus task force for being all male.
The tide also seems to be turning in Japan’s leading universities. Once renowned for their conservatism, many seem to be adopting a Western-style “progressive” or “woke” agenda. Waseda University has introduced speech codes for staff when interacting with LGBTQI+ students, while the International Christian University spent a fortune last year building an unprecedented suite of gender-neutral toilets, and has added “other” to the list of gender options on class registers. Japan’s Women’s University is one of several all-female institutions considering the admission of transgender students.
Meanwhile, Japan’s universities are introducing more progressive content to their humanities courses. A spate of umbrella courses with blandly innocuous names, such as Sophia University’s “Sustainable Futures”, are geared to promoting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: modules focus on “gender”, “race”, “climate”, and “inclusivity”. As for recruitment, applicants for university positions are often informed that if a male and female candidate are regarded as being equally qualified, the female will be chosen.
But, as ever with Japan, appearances can be deceiving. Japan’s progressive wave is merely an illusion to appeal to the outside world. Despite superficial reforms, its university campuses are as placid as ever. Student activism is virtually unknown; teachers are still held in high esteem, and visiting speakers are treated well. I’ve seen a beauty contest advertised on campus, but never a demonstration. In a society where people recoil at the idea of revealing their innermost traumas in public, and where fierce employee loyalty is deeply ingrained, the MeToo movement never stood a chance. It didn’t grow much beyond the campaign of a single victim, the TV journalist Shiori Itō, and as with Black Lives Matter hardly featured on Japanese campuses at all.
A likelier explanation for these reforms is a desire to attract foreign staff and students to boost university incomes. The Japanese government has been trying to increase the numbers of overseas students in Japan since it initiated its Global University Project in 2014, which selected 37 universities to subsidise for 10 years. In 2015, the government set an ambitious target of 10 Japanese universities in the Times Education top 100 rankings, which it is yet to achieve. There is much talk of Japan needing “globalised citizens” to revitalise the economy. To achieve these goals, a more “progressive” posture had to be struck to counter perceptions of Japanese universities as staid and backward looking.
Ultimately, the difference between wokeness in the West and in Japan is this: in the West, much of the impetus in universities seems to be coming from the students — at least a loud and determined minority; while in Japan the process is top-down and aimed at generating revenue. It’s not real: no one is cancelled and there are no “safe spaces”. Japanese students, if they even notice reforms, are often simply baffled by it all.
Similarly with TV dramas, there is little evidence of any desire on the part of the audience for more “modern” storylines. The most popular shows are still strikingly old-fashioned: presenters are rough-looking middle-aged men in shiny suits, with perky, deferential female sidekicks. They are known as se desu ne (“yes that’s right”) girls and their role is to be attractive and laugh at men’s jokes. The same goes for the music industry. The 48 female members of pop group AKB48 are selected for cuteness, sweetness, and air of innocence. Like all TV talents, they are inevitably controlled by agencies run by men.
As for Modern Love, could envy at the success of South Korea’s Squid Game and Parasite be having an influence on Japanese TV producers? Japan is an old hand at selling its culture overseas. The country is ranked fifth in the Global Soft Power Index, and its cultural influence in the UK is growing: Hideki Noda’s (‘Q’) — a drama blending kabuki with songs by Queen — played in London recently, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro has racked up nine nominations in the WhatsOnStage awards. Perhaps progressive posturing is part of an attempt to trigger a “cool Japan” wave in the West to rival the Korean wave known as hallyu?
To paraphrase Paul Valéry, in the modern world, everything changes but the avant-garde… and Japanese society. The corporate world remains unshakeably male, and calls to recognise same-sex marriage as constitutionally valid were thwarted in the courts in Osaka and Tokyo at the end of November. Japan languishes at 116 (out of 146) in the global gender equality rankings produced by the World Economic Forum in 2022.
It’s not clear how many Japanese people care. Long-term residents will recognise that, however dominant men seem to be, women wield considerable power in the domestic realm and beyond. A good example of this can be found in the inner workings of the formidable modern Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, whose political wing Komeito remains a coalition partner in government. Soka Gakkai is controlled, it is believed, by an all-female praesidium known as the married women’s association (the “Fujimbu”) which dictates the organisation’s policy.
Yet if progressive posturing is good for the Japanese economy, then so be it. Since the Meiji era (1868-1912), the Japanese have been renowned for refashioning foreign ideas into a distinct and efficient form. Japan’s police are based on the French gendarmerie, its schools on Germany’s gymnasiums, and its broadcasting service NHK on the BBC. The same goes for the arts: bonsai originated in China, as did the tea ceremony.
The phrase “go woke, go broke” might be a valuable warning in the West, but in Japan that message has been lost in translation. A full rejection of progressive Western values would be counterproductive: far better to appear to go along with it superficially, while changing nothing of consequence. Far better, and far more Japanese.
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SubscribeSurely the author can’t believe that going from a cohesive, traditional, stable society to an atomised, rootless, shifting society is a sign of “progress”. Japan has been very clever to only appear to “progress” while remaining true to its culture.
I suspect it may thrive while we circle the drain!
Haven’t young Japanese people stopped having sex? That doesn’t sound healthy.
The birth rate in Japan (1.3 children per women) is certainly slightly below ours (1.5). But how much of our rate is due to recent immigrants bringing their higher birth rates to Britain? Foreign born population of Japan is 2%, Britain 17%.
I suspect if we excluded newcomers, we would be close to the Japanese rate.
The Japanese have also been coming to terms with the implications of births below replacement rates and developing solutions. While we have been burying our heads in the sand and relying on high levels of, increasingly unpopular, immigration.
What are some of the ways the Japanese have been grappling with the implications of their low birth rate? Beside the U.K., there are many countries that could benefit from solutions to their replacement woes.
I watched a very interesting discussion of this by Alex Martin and Oscar Boyd (on Google). Basically they have three initiatives- 1. Technical innovation like AI, automation, self service and process improvement to reduce labour requirements; 2. encouraging people to consolidate around certain locations which includes subsidies on housing to encourage young people to move to rural locations and attempts to persuade old people to move closer to larger villages (as their village depopulated); 3. Trying to encourage women to have more kids, tax breaks for larger families, free ivf etc.
I watched a very interesting discussion of this by Alex Martin and Oscar Boyd (on Google). Basically they have three initiatives- 1. Technical innovation like AI, automation, self service and process improvement to reduce labour requirements; 2. encouraging people to consolidate around certain locations which includes subsidies on housing to encourage young people to move to rural locations and attempts to persuade old people to move closer to larger villages (as their village depopulated); 3. Trying to encourage women to have more kids, tax breaks for larger families, free ivf etc.
What are some of the ways the Japanese have been grappling with the implications of their low birth rate? Beside the U.K., there are many countries that could benefit from solutions to their replacement woes.
The birth rate in Japan (1.3 children per women) is certainly slightly below ours (1.5). But how much of our rate is due to recent immigrants bringing their higher birth rates to Britain? Foreign born population of Japan is 2%, Britain 17%.
I suspect if we excluded newcomers, we would be close to the Japanese rate.
The Japanese have also been coming to terms with the implications of births below replacement rates and developing solutions. While we have been burying our heads in the sand and relying on high levels of, increasingly unpopular, immigration.
Beautifully put. Would that be clockwise or anticlockwise?
Depends on your hemisphere but I hear the Aussies and Kiwis are in the same state as the Yanks and Brits.
Depends on your hemisphere but I hear the Aussies and Kiwis are in the same state as the Yanks and Brits.
Haven’t young Japanese people stopped having sex? That doesn’t sound healthy.
Beautifully put. Would that be clockwise or anticlockwise?
Surely the author can’t believe that going from a cohesive, traditional, stable society to an atomised, rootless, shifting society is a sign of “progress”. Japan has been very clever to only appear to “progress” while remaining true to its culture.
I suspect it may thrive while we circle the drain!
“Visiting speakers are treated well”
They really are dinosaurs, aren’t they?
The footballers even tidy their dressing rooms. Must be a backward country.
And their supporters take their rubbish home with them.
Sporting events are definitely different than they are in the U,S, and the U.K. A modicum of manners and respect, for the teams and themselves, would be a nice change.
They other people’s rubbish too
Sporting events are definitely different than they are in the U,S, and the U.K. A modicum of manners and respect, for the teams and themselves, would be a nice change.
They other people’s rubbish too
And their supporters take their rubbish home with them.
Basic civility and hospitality to guests? Sexist, reactionary pigs!!Eee, it’s disgoosting!!!
My goodness, Mr Patrick, you are a twisted piece of work.
The footballers even tidy their dressing rooms. Must be a backward country.
Basic civility and hospitality to guests? Sexist, reactionary pigs!!Eee, it’s disgoosting!!!
My goodness, Mr Patrick, you are a twisted piece of work.
“Visiting speakers are treated well”
They really are dinosaurs, aren’t they?
Maybe the west should should follow the lead of Japan? Sounds like they got it right there.
”Ultimately, the difference between wokeness in the West and in Japan is this: in the West, much of the impetus in universities seems to be coming from the students”
Yea, like bad dogs made their owners bad…….
”Ultimately, the difference between wokeness in the West and in Japan is this: in the West, much of the impetus in universities seems to be coming from the students”
Yea, like bad dogs made their owners bad…….
Maybe the west should should follow the lead of Japan? Sounds like they got it right there.
So Japan is basically Britain in 1997. All we have to do is wait 20 years and they’ll have parades of men dressed as dildos with drag queens reading to their kids. Once the woke mind virus infects a patient, it’s trajectory is inevitable, and terminal.
As you say. The UK is 10+ years behind the USA and Japan is further 10-15 years behind the UK/Europe.
Japan, however, is still relatively cut off from the outside world so its culture will be more woke-resistant than ours, perhaps allowing two cultures to exist side by side.
It confirms my view that all bad things start in the USA – an awful country.
I suspect not having English as one’s lingua-franca helps, since that is the primary means of transmission. Hopefully their language will act as a kind of shield. Nevertheless, the temptation of victimhood is extremely seductive – in wokeness the comfortable left have created a wonderful system of high returns in social capital, with zero risk. And yes, the USA are the super-spreader, but patient-zero is France… that’s where all bad ideas have their genesis!!!
Other examples please?
I don’t think you know what “lingua franca” means.
Having lived in Japan, I have observed that they are very selective in what they take from the west, which they regard as exciting in some ways but barbaric in others. It is a culture of deference, which we haven’t been since the 50s. They do not investigate their own war crimes, repress scandal in the interests of harmony, and look askance at the multiracial, strife-riven west. They have a great sense of the holiness of doing things traditionally, whereas we eviscerate our past and accuse our forefathers of sins that weren’t sins then. The Japanese see this as an act of self harm, not enlightenment.
Other examples please?
I don’t think you know what “lingua franca” means.
Having lived in Japan, I have observed that they are very selective in what they take from the west, which they regard as exciting in some ways but barbaric in others. It is a culture of deference, which we haven’t been since the 50s. They do not investigate their own war crimes, repress scandal in the interests of harmony, and look askance at the multiracial, strife-riven west. They have a great sense of the holiness of doing things traditionally, whereas we eviscerate our past and accuse our forefathers of sins that weren’t sins then. The Japanese see this as an act of self harm, not enlightenment.
The USA is often effective at disseminating ideas around the world, but in the case of Wokery, I think the virus originated in France.
NO it was founded in Wiemar Germany in the ‘Frankfurt School’ as a way to destroy Western values. An amalgam of atheism, existentialism, Freud, and Marx at the Goethe Institute. If you do not know this you are ignorant of the world, please read this Very biased Wiki on the ‘school’ (the founders of ‘Critical Theory’ and thus postmodernism, and thus all our ills…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
Then google the 11 points of the Frankfurt School
really, if you do not know this stuff you are Ignorant of the modern world!
NO it was founded in Wiemar Germany in the ‘Frankfurt School’ as a way to destroy Western values. An amalgam of atheism, existentialism, Freud, and Marx at the Goethe Institute. If you do not know this you are ignorant of the world, please read this Very biased Wiki on the ‘school’ (the founders of ‘Critical Theory’ and thus postmodernism, and thus all our ills…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
Then google the 11 points of the Frankfurt School
really, if you do not know this stuff you are Ignorant of the modern world!
It’s the language barrier. It’s why Japan will cling on to its heritage and culture when the UK will lose it all to American Globalism.
Please read on ‘Meiji Restoration’ Japan has a social rule of ‘Adopt and Adapt’ They are an odd bunch, and strong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
Please read on ‘Meiji Restoration’ Japan has a social rule of ‘Adopt and Adapt’ They are an odd bunch, and strong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
I agree, but I can also think of a couple of bad things that didn’t start in the USA: WWI, WWII, Black Plague, Slavery, Torture, numerous Empires and haggis.
Carl Marx, Freudian theory, Existentialism, Postmodernism, Nihilism, to name the actual roots of all this
Haggis is the worst
Carl Marx, Freudian theory, Existentialism, Postmodernism, Nihilism, to name the actual roots of all this
Haggis is the worst
Great Britain, as it was then, made a great geo-strategic mistake in failing to throw its full resources behind the Confederacy in 1861.
Interesting point of view but, assuming that you are serious (?) why was it a mistake?
Interesting point of view but, assuming that you are serious (?) why was it a mistake?
” It confirms my view that all bad things start in the USA – an awful country.”
As someone who is a member of both sides of the Atlantic, I can assure you you are totally wrong, and a complete tool of the agenda controlled MSM and entertainment industry and Social Media.
50%+ of USA, what we could call the MAGA Deplorables, are 100% in line with the Japanese on all this.
The problem is as all the Education, and Medias, are 90% captured by the postmodernist Neo-Marxist running dogs of the Globalists; it appears this is not the case.
Having cheated and stolen the 2020 and 2022 elections by total corruption things look bad now, but this will flip in 2024, and sanity will return. Not all USA is sunk into degeneracy as Western Europe and UK are. People still go to Church and have Judeo-Christian Morals. USA may ride to the rescue against the Global Left/Liberal Woke Fas *ists like in WWII.
Yes, you are right. American influence is culturally destructive. I loved traveling in the 1980s-2000s, many times to UK and continent. There was a culture in England, and Europe, where America had and has none. Leaving here (USA) every year for 3 weeks was such a good thing for my life and mentality.
I remember being disgusted the first few days back in the USA. Compared to England in 1990s, I returned to a place of ignorant. unfriendly, ill-mannered people.
It makes me sad and a bit angry to think that the UK has declined to the level of American society.
17% of Britain is foreign born? This is insane, it is cultural suicide. How can you stop it?
I suspect not having English as one’s lingua-franca helps, since that is the primary means of transmission. Hopefully their language will act as a kind of shield. Nevertheless, the temptation of victimhood is extremely seductive – in wokeness the comfortable left have created a wonderful system of high returns in social capital, with zero risk. And yes, the USA are the super-spreader, but patient-zero is France… that’s where all bad ideas have their genesis!!!
The USA is often effective at disseminating ideas around the world, but in the case of Wokery, I think the virus originated in France.
It’s the language barrier. It’s why Japan will cling on to its heritage and culture when the UK will lose it all to American Globalism.
I agree, but I can also think of a couple of bad things that didn’t start in the USA: WWI, WWII, Black Plague, Slavery, Torture, numerous Empires and haggis.
Great Britain, as it was then, made a great geo-strategic mistake in failing to throw its full resources behind the Confederacy in 1861.
” It confirms my view that all bad things start in the USA – an awful country.”
As someone who is a member of both sides of the Atlantic, I can assure you you are totally wrong, and a complete tool of the agenda controlled MSM and entertainment industry and Social Media.
50%+ of USA, what we could call the MAGA Deplorables, are 100% in line with the Japanese on all this.
The problem is as all the Education, and Medias, are 90% captured by the postmodernist Neo-Marxist running dogs of the Globalists; it appears this is not the case.
Having cheated and stolen the 2020 and 2022 elections by total corruption things look bad now, but this will flip in 2024, and sanity will return. Not all USA is sunk into degeneracy as Western Europe and UK are. People still go to Church and have Judeo-Christian Morals. USA may ride to the rescue against the Global Left/Liberal Woke Fas *ists like in WWII.
Yes, you are right. American influence is culturally destructive. I loved traveling in the 1980s-2000s, many times to UK and continent. There was a culture in England, and Europe, where America had and has none. Leaving here (USA) every year for 3 weeks was such a good thing for my life and mentality.
I remember being disgusted the first few days back in the USA. Compared to England in 1990s, I returned to a place of ignorant. unfriendly, ill-mannered people.
It makes me sad and a bit angry to think that the UK has declined to the level of American society.
17% of Britain is foreign born? This is insane, it is cultural suicide. How can you stop it?
Nah, Japan is exceptional on issues like this. Even their marxists in the 60s were nationalists.
A fascinating reading of Japan and communists – how MacArthur stopped Communism from taking Japan post WWII – really cool, as it could well have – one giant of a man.
A fascinating reading of Japan and communists – how MacArthur stopped Communism from taking Japan post WWII – really cool, as it could well have – one giant of a man.
we do have men dressed as dildos… the plastic suited ” ToylitTory” MPs with their reound veowel seounds, ” Pleeceman speak” Windsor tie knots and corfam pointy shoes, who in an earlier age would have been footmen or under butlers.
As you say. The UK is 10+ years behind the USA and Japan is further 10-15 years behind the UK/Europe.
Japan, however, is still relatively cut off from the outside world so its culture will be more woke-resistant than ours, perhaps allowing two cultures to exist side by side.
It confirms my view that all bad things start in the USA – an awful country.
Nah, Japan is exceptional on issues like this. Even their marxists in the 60s were nationalists.
we do have men dressed as dildos… the plastic suited ” ToylitTory” MPs with their reound veowel seounds, ” Pleeceman speak” Windsor tie knots and corfam pointy shoes, who in an earlier age would have been footmen or under butlers.
So Japan is basically Britain in 1997. All we have to do is wait 20 years and they’ll have parades of men dressed as dildos with drag queens reading to their kids. Once the woke mind virus infects a patient, it’s trajectory is inevitable, and terminal.
“Long-term residents will recognise that, however dominant men seem to be, women wield considerable power in the domestic realm and beyond.” Gee – what other societies might this statement apply to?
I notice it exists in the Mexican macho world as well. In the home the woman wields the power. That arrangement seems to suit the notion of inside/outside the home before women were “forced” to work outside the home.
In Iran too. The woman is the power in the family. Ayatollah Khomeini, had huge respect for his mother and the women in his family. That is why he allowed women to keep their professional jobs and professional licenses, right to attend University, kept girls schools academic, and allowed them to drive cars, did not force the chador (which had been the culturial tradition earlier) but the just abaya and so on. Shia women are given pretty good respect (over Sunni in law and culture mostly)
In Iran too. The woman is the power in the family. Ayatollah Khomeini, had huge respect for his mother and the women in his family. That is why he allowed women to keep their professional jobs and professional licenses, right to attend University, kept girls schools academic, and allowed them to drive cars, did not force the chador (which had been the culturial tradition earlier) but the just abaya and so on. Shia women are given pretty good respect (over Sunni in law and culture mostly)
When MacArthur wrote the Japanese Constitution after WWII he insisted 100% woman get the right to vote – a fascinating story of this process of the writing and then getting the Diet to ratify it – great reading
Anyway – he forced the Japanese to give the women the vote (very against all their culture!) because he said that would stop them from becoming a militarized nation ever again – as they saw what the military had done, and the war had done, and women are not warlike… and he was right.
I notice it exists in the Mexican macho world as well. In the home the woman wields the power. That arrangement seems to suit the notion of inside/outside the home before women were “forced” to work outside the home.
When MacArthur wrote the Japanese Constitution after WWII he insisted 100% woman get the right to vote – a fascinating story of this process of the writing and then getting the Diet to ratify it – great reading
Anyway – he forced the Japanese to give the women the vote (very against all their culture!) because he said that would stop them from becoming a militarized nation ever again – as they saw what the military had done, and the war had done, and women are not warlike… and he was right.
“Long-term residents will recognise that, however dominant men seem to be, women wield considerable power in the domestic realm and beyond.” Gee – what other societies might this statement apply to?
Japan sounds like a nice place.
Japan sounds like a nice place.
Hopefully Japan stays strong, although they may only be posturing at the moment you only need to let a few “progressives” into important positions before the insanity rapidly spreads as we’ve seen in the UK.
Long-term, rather than jumping on the train to clown town along with the “progressives” Japan would be better marketing themselves as sane place for normal people to escape the crazies as the collapse of the west accelerates.
My wife is from Japan and we’ll be moving back there when we have kids, absolutely no chance we’d want them educated in the UK/US these days.
Take plenty of money with you.
One other factor forcing down birthrates is the cost of education. From kindergartens (yochien) with multiple uniforms all the way up to Uni, the costs are considerable – although I’m sure the UK must be catching up.
It’s one of the things that drove us out.
Make sure your relationship with your wife is healthy, as foreigners do not fare well in the divorce courts – custody of kids normally going to the Japanese parent.
Otherwise, the absence of wokery and respect for tradition is highly refreshing.
Take plenty of money with you.
One other factor forcing down birthrates is the cost of education. From kindergartens (yochien) with multiple uniforms all the way up to Uni, the costs are considerable – although I’m sure the UK must be catching up.
It’s one of the things that drove us out.
Make sure your relationship with your wife is healthy, as foreigners do not fare well in the divorce courts – custody of kids normally going to the Japanese parent.
Otherwise, the absence of wokery and respect for tradition is highly refreshing.
Hopefully Japan stays strong, although they may only be posturing at the moment you only need to let a few “progressives” into important positions before the insanity rapidly spreads as we’ve seen in the UK.
Long-term, rather than jumping on the train to clown town along with the “progressives” Japan would be better marketing themselves as sane place for normal people to escape the crazies as the collapse of the west accelerates.
My wife is from Japan and we’ll be moving back there when we have kids, absolutely no chance we’d want them educated in the UK/US these days.
The inherent problem with wokeism is the huge contradictions that arise, because it’s based not on principles but rather on interest groups, who have decided that they are perpetual “victims” and therefore deserve special privileges.
Thus, all male Covid committees are a problem but not 75% female teachers, or all male military casualties in Ukraine.
Or a family where the woman gives up her job to focus on being a mother while the father earns money to run the house is horrible, unless it’s a child custody case in a divorce court and it’s all change.
The inherent problem with wokeism is the huge contradictions that arise, because it’s based not on principles but rather on interest groups, who have decided that they are perpetual “victims” and therefore deserve special privileges.
Thus, all male Covid committees are a problem but not 75% female teachers, or all male military casualties in Ukraine.
Or a family where the woman gives up her job to focus on being a mother while the father earns money to run the house is horrible, unless it’s a child custody case in a divorce court and it’s all change.
‘as with Black Lives Matter hardly featured on Japanese campuses at all’
Why should it? There are few black people in Japan.
Not strictly true, there’s been waves of black migration to Japan from 1500s onward. And a lot of white people were involved in BLM protests in the UK.
‘Waves of black migration’? I had to check this as it strikes me as a misleading response to the original comment.
There are a few thousand black people now in a population of 125 million – that’s about 0.015% of the whole population. So Sophy was correct that there are few black people in Japan.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01296612.2021.1986319
‘Waves of black migration’? I had to check this as it strikes me as a misleading response to the original comment.
There are a few thousand black people now in a population of 125 million – that’s about 0.015% of the whole population. So Sophy was correct that there are few black people in Japan.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01296612.2021.1986319
Not strictly true, there’s been waves of black migration to Japan from 1500s onward. And a lot of white people were involved in BLM protests in the UK.
‘as with Black Lives Matter hardly featured on Japanese campuses at all’
Why should it? There are few black people in Japan.
Japan sounds great! It must be wonderful to live in such a sensible, polite, civilized society.
Japan sounds great! It must be wonderful to live in such a sensible, polite, civilized society.
“It’s not clear how many Japanese people care”.
I know how they feel.
“It’s not clear how many Japanese people care”.
I know how they feel.
It’s a snarky article, like there is something incorrect and shameful about Japanese culture failing to adopt Western so called “values”. Japan is not of the West, rather, it is obviously rooted in Confucianism.
The imposition of Western standards, via financial systems, industrial globalisation, and the new Woke ideology is a form of non military neo-imperialism. The East and South have finally realized what is afoot.
It’s a snarky article, like there is something incorrect and shameful about Japanese culture failing to adopt Western so called “values”. Japan is not of the West, rather, it is obviously rooted in Confucianism.
The imposition of Western standards, via financial systems, industrial globalisation, and the new Woke ideology is a form of non military neo-imperialism. The East and South have finally realized what is afoot.
Let’s hope at least some parts of the world hold out in the face of flagrant Western degeneracy.
Let’s hope at least some parts of the world hold out in the face of flagrant Western degeneracy.
What an unfortunate article. Equating Woke ideas with progress is very regressive.
Long live Japanese resistance. The UK has already lost.
What an unfortunate article. Equating Woke ideas with progress is very regressive.
Long live Japanese resistance. The UK has already lost.
The Japanese are conservative to an extent that is incomprehensible to the west. The numbers of foreign asylum seekers they let in a year is double digits and the Covid era ban on alll foreigners entering the country for 2 and a half years was extraordinarily popular. ‘Progress’ does not exist in Japan except insofar as it can be delicately managed. This has been the way they have operated since their three century policy of murdering potentially dangerous foreigners on the beaches ended in the 1800s.
The Japanese are conservative to an extent that is incomprehensible to the west. The numbers of foreign asylum seekers they let in a year is double digits and the Covid era ban on alll foreigners entering the country for 2 and a half years was extraordinarily popular. ‘Progress’ does not exist in Japan except insofar as it can be delicately managed. This has been the way they have operated since their three century policy of murdering potentially dangerous foreigners on the beaches ended in the 1800s.
“teachers are still held in high esteem, and visiting speakers are treated well.” The horror!
“teachers are still held in high esteem, and visiting speakers are treated well.” The horror!
Isn’t the article suggesting a cynical phony adoption of wokeness by in particular Japanese universities, rather than a war on it?
Yes, I thought exactly that. The title is completely misleading. Who was editing this?
Yes, I thought exactly that. The title is completely misleading. Who was editing this?
Isn’t the article suggesting a cynical phony adoption of wokeness by in particular Japanese universities, rather than a war on it?
So basically Japan is Britain in 1997. All we have to do is wait 20 years and they’ll have parades of men dressed as d-i-l-d-o-s with drag queens reading to their kids.
My comment appeared twice.. it didn’t work the first time so I thought maybe Unherd didn’t like d-i-l-d-o-s…. but then it magically appeared but with the edit function removed. Must be gremlins brought about by all the snow!!
My comment appeared twice.. it didn’t work the first time so I thought maybe Unherd didn’t like d-i-l-d-o-s…. but then it magically appeared but with the edit function removed. Must be gremlins brought about by all the snow!!
So basically Japan is Britain in 1997. All we have to do is wait 20 years and they’ll have parades of men dressed as d-i-l-d-o-s with drag queens reading to their kids.
‘Despite superficial reforms…’
What you describe is anything but reform. It is regression, of the most foul and depraved kind. I am disgusted that these US campus-cultural-colonialist perversions are happening in Japan at all – and if they are a cynical charade, thank goodness for that.
‘Despite superficial reforms…’
What you describe is anything but reform. It is regression, of the most foul and depraved kind. I am disgusted that these US campus-cultural-colonialist perversions are happening in Japan at all – and if they are a cynical charade, thank goodness for that.
So a university wishing to attract foreign students adopts “gender-neutral toilets”. My days in Japan were long ago but I recall being in a department store with a unisex toilet. As I stood at the urinals along the wall, two ladies came in entered the stalls. At the time made perfect sense. It’s a pity that civility can’t be everywhere.
So a university wishing to attract foreign students adopts “gender-neutral toilets”. My days in Japan were long ago but I recall being in a department store with a unisex toilet. As I stood at the urinals along the wall, two ladies came in entered the stalls. At the time made perfect sense. It’s a pity that civility can’t be everywhere.
Which is more likely: that Japan is collectively waging a secret war on woke by only pretending to be woke, or that they are simply following us to the gallows? You also shouldn’t put too much stock in how things are right now, because this stuff always goes from nothing to something to everything. Japan isn’t going to instantly leapfrog to where we are now, just like we didn’t. Imagine going back even a decade–or less–and “predicting” what things will be like in 2022; almost nobody would believe you. But here we are. Just because things are relatively fine now doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way, and we know from a lot of past experience that there’s no room for optimism. A lot of left-wing cultural rot has already seeped into Japan, and it’s going to keep increasing.
Which is more likely: that Japan is collectively waging a secret war on woke by only pretending to be woke, or that they are simply following us to the gallows? You also shouldn’t put too much stock in how things are right now, because this stuff always goes from nothing to something to everything. Japan isn’t going to instantly leapfrog to where we are now, just like we didn’t. Imagine going back even a decade–or less–and “predicting” what things will be like in 2022; almost nobody would believe you. But here we are. Just because things are relatively fine now doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way, and we know from a lot of past experience that there’s no room for optimism. A lot of left-wing cultural rot has already seeped into Japan, and it’s going to keep increasing.
“A likelier explanation for these reforms is a desire to attract foreign staff and students to boost university incomes.”
If I was applying to a Japanese university, I would find them thoroughly off-putting.
“A likelier explanation for these reforms is a desire to attract foreign staff and students to boost university incomes.”
If I was applying to a Japanese university, I would find them thoroughly off-putting.
‘As for Modern Love, could envy at the success of South Korea’s Squid Game and Parasite be having an influence on Japanese TV producers’.
Japan has already made its own Squid Game called Alice in Borderland which came out before Squid Game so if anything it’s the other way round.
‘As for Modern Love, could envy at the success of South Korea’s Squid Game and Parasite be having an influence on Japanese TV producers’.
Japan has already made its own Squid Game called Alice in Borderland which came out before Squid Game so if anything it’s the other way round.
Interesting how whilst Britain is criticised and self flagellates about racism, it is almost never even mentioned that Japan has almost no racial minorities and no Islamist problems, yet as the once global leader in consumer electronics, capitulated its lead in mobile phones and IT to silicone valley, my completely missing the advent of the new microchip and internet arrival?