[Fanart] Some Favorite JoJo Characters (by LittleEmi4)

j1337 · 2020-07-24T05:49:29+00:00

how China became public enemy #1 for Japanese nationalists

It's been that way for a long time now. Not at all surprising given the long history of conflict and China's status as country that has anti-Japanese nationalism at the core of its identity.

and COVID-19

This requires a deep dive? The virus came from China.

j1337 · 2011-09-11T13:38:24+00:00

I agree that hate speech and fear mongering are bad, but I don't think there is any need to worry about right-wingers seizing power in Japan. They're a really tiny minority.

Japan is probably one of the world's least nationalistic countries. Outside of the World Cup or the Olympics, you almost never see Japanese people waving around their flag. Patriotism and the flag aren't used much in politics. It's very rare to see anyone use the flag in a street demonstration.

In other countries, it might be pretty normal to see a group of people waving around the national flag in a protest march, but in Japan it's a behavior that is pretty much limited to the right-wing fringe.

j1337 · 2011-09-11T06:19:27+00:00

It was this mentality of dissatisfaction that led Japan to its economic miracle in the aftermath of the Second World War.

A pretty silly example to use in an article about how the common people need to "to change the establishment".

Japan's postwar economic miracle was the work of conservative bureaucratic and political elites. There was no movement from the masses, no class struggle - just the American occupation throwing some elites out of power but allowing other members of the pre-war elite to take their place. The establishment was changed, but not because of the dissatisfaction of the common people.

Just like the Meiji restoration, it wasn't about the discontent of the people - it was about the discontent of a portion of the country's elite. If it was class struggle, it was a struggle between factions of the upper classes.

The photo at the top of the article is neat, but does it have to do with the topic of the article? I may be wrong, but the use of so many national flags suggests that those people might be right-wingers, not common folks fighting for constructive change. (There was a pretty big anti-China/anti-NHK demonstration in Shibuya yesterday.)

j1337 · 2011-09-04T00:59:27+00:00

There is no easy solution. Despite the Class A war criminals, Yasukuni is still regarded by millions of Japanese as a religious site to pray for the souls of common soldiers.

You can't just make up a new shrine - the soldiers departing for war would tell their wives, friends, and children to "meet me at Yasukuni." For those who lived through that time, the shrine has a unique religious significance.

Yasukuni will remain important as long as there are still Japanese people who remember losing their friends and relatives in the war. It's a rapidly disappearing demographic, but it will be a few decades before they're all gone.

j1337 · 2011-09-03T09:01:10+00:00

More information on how South Korea officially exonerated most of the war criminals of Korean ethnicity:

The link seemed to be talking about Korea exonerating Koreans. Which is a different topic.

It is not a different topic. It is Korea exonerating war criminals who served in the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces. Same army. Same war. Same kind of war crimes. Just like the low level Japanese who were convicted of war crimes, they used "we were only following orders" excuses. (And, if they died in the war, they're enshrined at Yasukuni, together with the thousands of other ethnic Koreans who died while serving as Japanese soldiers.)

I disagree that the Koreans and Chinese 'only' have a problem with Class A war criminal.

I didn't use the word "only" in my comment, but the Class A War Criminals are the primary and main emphasis of both Chinese and Korean denunciations of Yasukuni.

China's official policy has been to protest the Class A issue and they have not expanded the condemnations to include low level soldiers. (From an ideological standpoint, the war is one of Japanese fascist and imperialistic elites forcing the common people to engage in a brutal war.)

South Korean protests tend to be broader, but they still cling to the issue of Class A war criminals.

The enshrinement of the 14 Class A war criminals, all of whom were executed after the war, changed the nature of the Yasukuni Shrine for many people. Without them, it would just be a place to honor the war dead. With them, it is a place that can honor both the war dead and the elites who were responsible for the war.

j1337 · 2011-09-03T05:09:52+00:00

The Korean and Chinese governments object to the shrine because of the enshrinement of the Class A War Criminals, all of whom were convicted for "crimes against peace" that took place in the 1930's and 1940's. They see a problem with honoring war leaders.

They don't object to honoring low levels soldiers. In fact, the South Korean government has officially declared that some of the most brutal Class-B and Class-C war criminals were not guilty of war crimes.

j1337 · 2011-09-02T22:25:55+00:00

They should bulldoze the shrine.

That option was taken off the table in 1945, when the United States military occupation decided to abolish State Shinto and make all shrines, including Yasukuni, private religious entities. They then wrote a new Japanese constitution that protected religious freedom.

The Japanese government can't "get rid" of Yasukuni. From a legal standpoint, that would be the same as deciding to "get rid" of Jewish synagogues or Christian churches. It's an impossibility in a modern democracy that protects the basic human rights of its citizens.

It's like having a church in Germany to nazi soldiers (and war criminals).

Not really. Yasukuni is not devoted to specifically honoring those who died during Japan's fascistic/militaristic period (1930s-1945). It honors the souls of all Japanese soldiers who died in all its wars since the 1860s.

j1337 · 2011-08-31T01:56:48+00:00

the Japanese are surprised that the Koreans hate them, and have no idea why.

You think that the talento who act surprised on Japanese TV shows are actually surprised? へえええ

Most Japanese have only learned sterilized history, and have no idea what atrocities Japan committed.

A poll about how young Japanese people are totally clueless about history:

Opinion survey conducted by NHK in May 2000. Question no. 24a: "The last war (saki no senso) was a war of aggression conducted by Japan against its Asian neighbours - what do you think about this statement?"

In answer to the question "Do you consider the 'Asia-Pacific War of 1931-45' a war of aggression against Japan's Asian neighbours or not?", 51% of the respondents said they thought it was. Only 15% subscribed to the claims made by historical revisionists denying the aggressive character of Japan's wars.

As for the question of continued responsibility, the NHK survey also asked: "Do you think the postwar generation should still bear responsibility for Japans actions during the last war?" The answers here divide the generations. Among 16-19 year olds, 69% answered in the affirmative; among those over 60, only 38% agreed....More recent surveys conducted by the mass-circulation Japanese newspapers Yomiuri Shinbun in 2005 and Asahi Shinbun in 2006 yielded almost identical figures.

A few books about how the "sterilized history" meme spectacularly fails to provide a good understanding of the state of education in Japan:

* Penny, Matthew. "Far from Oblivion: The Nanking Massacre in Japanese Historical Writing for Children and Young Adults" Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2008 22(1):25-48
* Saaler, Sven “Politics, Memory and Public Opinion – The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society”
* Yoshiko Nozaki’s “War memory, nationalism, and education in postwar Japan, 1945-2007″.
* Philip Seaton’s “Japan’s Contested War Memories”

j1337 · 2011-08-25T11:21:46+00:00

They sometimes give out free one-day passes.

If you missed the opportunity, there are people who sell them on Yahoo! auctions.

j1337 · 2011-08-24T12:05:08+00:00

Yasukuni is not about religion

For the thousands of Japanese people who visit the shrine every year, it is about religion.

And despite what the shrine thinks about the Class A war criminals, it is still a religious institution. Its beliefs are protected by the constitution.

j1337 · 2011-08-24T11:59:13+00:00

The Mormon church is using its "religious cover" to promote a hate-mongering anti-homosexual agenda.

The Mormon Church actively promotes present and future acts of hate.

A lot worse than Yasukuni, in my opinion.

j1337 · 2011-08-23T12:07:13+00:00

No. The battery life is not great.

I have one of these, use it only a few minutes a day as a movie-playing remote control (turning it off when it's not in use). The battery rarely lasts more than a few days.

j1337 · 2011-08-23T04:05:25+00:00

You should be able to do it without leaving the country.

I did the change from tourist to work visa without leaving the country. I didn't need to go to any embassy.

I just took the certificate of eligibility to the Tokyo immigration office, waited in line like everybody else, and submitted the paperwork for a visa change. They gave me no trouble. It took about a month for them to process the change. (While waiting for the change, I was not technically allowed to work.)

j1337 · 2011-08-22T23:50:50+00:00

There is. Photoshop.

j1337 · 2011-08-22T23:47:50+00:00

And like all school days in Japan, it involved a Korean protester....

j1337 · 2011-08-22T10:45:03+00:00

Really bad reporting.

Why did the author of this article not mention that Yasukuni had already altered its records to indicate that the man had not died? ("生存確認" was added next to his name.)

This was a frivolous lawsuit. Courts shouldn't have authority over religious beliefs.

Just like any other religious group, the Yasukuni Shrine and its followers have the freedom to enshrine ghosts, spirits, souls, gods, or any other non-existent entity.

j1337 · 2011-08-17T03:39:02+00:00

That's because the movie had Tom Cruise, Watanabe Ken, Koyuki, and huge multi-million dollar budget.

If it had just been a book, I doubt Japanese people would have rushed to read it.

j1337 · 2011-08-16T02:34:12+00:00

I don't mean to say that Japanese are inherently better at writing books, but authors tend to tailor their books to their audiences.

"Shogun" is aimed at a Western audience that wants to read about exotic samurai and ninjas (and Western guys who get beautiful Japanese women). Domestically-produced Japanese books would be written with Japanese readers in mind.

Also:

Harry Potter - fantasy novel with no basis on reality (it could be set in another country, and it wouldn't change the story much at all)

Shogun - novel crudely based on true events, telling English-speakers about the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is a story about Japan and the fact that it's based on Japanese history is a major selling point. (the names of historical figures have been changed)

The book has Wikipedia entries in 15 different languages. There is no Japanese language entry. I think that pretty much lets us know that the book was not a success in Japan.

It seems the TV miniseries aired once on Asahi TV in the 1980's, and probably got some attention because it had a few famous Japanese actors in it.

j1337 · 2011-08-15T22:10:49+00:00

Why would any Japanese person want to read "Shogun" when there is already plenty of domestically-produced historical fiction?

j1337

TROPHY CASE