dark clouds gathering
[Edited Sept. 16, 2012, 11:00 am]
Following my recent post on the topic here, I cannot but link this discussion that Debito has just initiated on his blog, and which contains a series of articles and comments showing that something very disturbing is happening in Japan, with the rise of the extreme right and its jingoistic, xenophobic rhetoric.
As Harumi Befu, an eminent Japanese academic, puts it, dark clouds are gathering fast indeed, posing a serious threat not only to Japan’s future but to the lasting peace in East Asia.
There’s a case that can be made nowadays that Japan is not only in decline, it’s falling back on jingoism (beyond the standard nihonjinron and historical revisionism) to support the image of a Japan that was once better when it had fewer foreigners (or none, which was historically never the case).
As my current research (more on this in future) has sought to demonstrate, Japan’s (Postwar, not Prewar, cf. Oguma Eiji) national narrative of “monoculturalism, monoethnicity, and homogeneity” has sponsored an ideological ethnic cleansing of Japan, thanks in part to revolving-door visa regimes and all manner of incentives to make sure that few “visibly foreign” foreigners stay here forever (hence the prioritizing of the Nikkei) for they agitate for more rights as generational residents (consider the visas that can be cancelled or phased out pretty much at government whim; we’ve seen it before with, for example, the Iranians in the late 1990s).
And if you ever thought “the next generation of younger Japanese will be more liberal”, we now have Osaka Gov Hashimoro Touru (younger than I) also supporting historical revisionism (see below) and forming the “Japan Restoration Party” (the poignantly and ominously named Nihon Ishin no Kai) on September 12, 2012.
With the recent saber-rattling (which nation-states indulge in periodically to draw public attention away from larger social problems, in Japan’s case the issues of nuclear power and the irradiating food chain) and the overblown flaps over the Takeshima/Tokdo and Senkaku/Diaoyu ocean specks, we have an emerging vision of Japan as a remilitarized power in Asia, courtesy of Debito.org Reader JDG.
I thought we’d have a discussion about that here. Take a look through the resource materials below and consider whether or not you share the apprehension that I (and some major academics overseas, including Ted Bestor and Harumi Befu, at the very bottom) have about Japan’s future.
—Arudou Debito
Continue reading here.
September 12, 2012 3:45 am
Japan’s not ready to be a reliable allyThe Financial Times (London), Letter to the Editor
From Dr Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Courtesy DH
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/99321782-fb4d-11e1-87ae-00144feabdc0.htmlSir, Ian Bremmer and David Gordon’s suggestion that “Japan must be the new indispensable ally for the US in Asia” (September 10) is an absolute non-starter; going down that road would be disastrous for the US and for the region.
First, Japan has become more than ever since the end of the second world war, and more than any other major country, an inward looking-nation. There is no Japanese world view. The number of Japanese students in the US has significantly declined, in contrast to the growing numbers from many other Asian countries. Japan scores last but one (North Korea) in TOEFL (tests of English as a foreign language). Since Sadako Ogata served as the UN high commissioner for refugees there has been no prominent Japanese holding an international position. There is no visibility, let alone influence, of Japan at the World Trade Organisation. On this, as in respect to many other issues, no one knows what Japan stands for. At international policy forums, the Japanese, apart from a tiny handful of regulars, tend to be conspicuous by their absence. Japan remains a very closed country to foreigners: there are very, very few foreigners (and especially few non-Japanese Asians) in prominent positions in Japanese companies, Japanese universities, Japanese think-tanks, Japanese non-governmental organisations (of which there are very few internationally inclined), and so on. The picture of Japanese corporate diplomacy they present is a throwback to a vision of the 1980s, which was pretty much a mirage already then.
Second, and far more critical as recent events so sadly demonstrate, Japan, unlike Germany, has still not made peace with its neighbours. Relations are terrible with the Koreans and with China, but they are also bad with many other Asian countries or entities, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Not only has Japan shown no leadership in Asia, it has been seen to behave in a highly mercantilist fashion and with a stunning lack of conscience of its past atrocities. The Japanese have shown themselves, at best, to be amazingly insensitive.
For the moment, unlike in the 1930s and 1940s, Japan poses no military threat. However, its behaviour vis-à-vis the world in general and its Asian neighbours in particular poses a serious security threat. There can be no peace in the Asia of the 21st century if the peace of the 20th century in Asia has not been restored. By whitewashing the past (as the US did vis-à-vis Japan and Asia in the aftermath of the second world war) and embracing Japan as an indispensable ally in Asia, the US will be seriously exacerbating the already explosive regional condition.
Japan should be encouraged to make peace and open up. Then prospects for a peaceful and prosperous Pacific will be greatly enhanced.
—Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Emeritus Professor at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland
P.S. I am adding a recent comment by JDG [http://www.debito.org/?p=10554#comment-349888], which highlights the never-ending stupidity and arrogance of Japanese politicians, as well as the appalling apathy of the Japanese people — which JDG rightly sees as tacit endorsement and support — in face of the shipwreck towards which the country is heading:
If I may, I would like to offer some thoughts on the discussion thus far.
I think that what we are witnessing is a rather unfortunate timing of various elements to create something of a ‘perfect storm’. These elements are;
1. Korea’s upcoming election leading to bombastic behavior by the Korean PM.
2. Chinese leadership handover against a background of unrest over domestic issues prompting a tougher approach than usual.
3. Japanese verbosity as a product of the popularity contest of J-politics, for domestic consumption, with no regard to the impact that this has on other international players.The result of this is that whereas all three players have irritated each other over territorial issues since the end of the war, all players have understood the need to avoid escalation. It is unfortunate that neither Korea nor China are able to back down this time due to domestic pressures of leadership changes, and that Japan, having played the ‘small, weak Japan’ card for so long, only has that potential leg of power on which hopeful PM candidates can talk tough. I do not think that the Japanese understand just how dangerous playing with fire is, in this respect.
There is the very real possibility that all of Japan’s saber-rattling and arrogance over the Senkaku’s is only for domestic effect with no real intention of military action. However, China is not to know this, and in a very real demonstration of ‘constructivist theory’ is obliged to take J-politicians statements as statement of intent for China’s own protection. To the Chinese, the verbal stupidity of nationalist J-politicians may seem to indicate a very real threat of resurgent wartime nationalism that was so bloody aweful for all of asia. I think that it has been established on Debito.org in the past, that Japan has never freed itself from imperial era ideology and attitudes of Japanese racial supremacy. If we have spotted that, then so have the Chinese. They are merely acting according to their worst fears.
The Chinese military has had many short wars with it’s neighbors since 1945, and took on the UN/US in Korea. More recently, it has enjoyed border conflicts with Russia. Chinese commanders have experience of modern war, that the Japanese are simply lacking. What do the Japanese have? A strong ally? The US is trying to cool this whole situation down not only because the Chinese hold trillions of US debt, but also because it will be rather difficult to convince US voters that American boys need to die for some rocks waaaay far away from Japan. A point that the ever ‘reliable’ J-media fails to convey to the J-public.
So, apart from an ally, what has Japan got?
Only the supreme arrogance that they are better because they are Japanese (sound familiar? If it does, then that’s because it’s the same thinking that stopped them from accepting a surrender request in ’44 and saving themselves from USAF bombing). A number of armchair generals (admirals?) on other forums are assured of Japanese naval technology’s supremacy. Do your homework. China has been spending a fortune on building one of the worlds advanced navies. Stealth cruisers, long-range anti-ship missiles, and building the worlds quietest attack submarine. Don’t be fooled by the aircraft carriers, that just a prestige thing.I read on this thread comments along the lines of the, never-tiring, ‘but the young people are different!’ (heard that for the last 60 years), and ‘the J-public are against all this, but it’s the old-fashioned politicians, with their out-of-touch views’. Let me address those two viewpoints.
The J-politicians now being labelled as out-of-touch were amongst the very first, second, or third generations of J-youth to be labelled by observers as ‘so unlike their fathers’, and ‘different’. Yet, here we are, and they are exactly the same. As for being out-of-touch, remember that they were all voted in by the public! Please avoid the fallacy that ‘peace-loving, progressive, and internationally open minded Japanese are being led into this against their will’. This is exactly the same myth used to sell the ‘reverse-course’ to the US public after the war (‘We thought that the Japanese were all savage murderers, but they aren’t see! The peace-loving country was hi-jacked by militarists, is all’). The Japanese are getting the government that they deserve, and in fact, chose. ‘Ah, but maybe they didn’t vote!’ I hear you cry. ‘The one’s that didn’t vote aren’t narrow-minded’. Really? When was the last time you saw Japanese taking to the streets to protect your rights? Never, right? Finger-print scanners? RFID chips in ID cards? I didn’t see any Japanese protesting for my human rights. Apathy is tacit endorsement and support.
Japanese people have a hard enough time standing up for their own rights, never mind yours (think of service overtime, being told when you are allowed a day off, or the fact that a triple nuclear melt-down is needed to get anyone out on the streets).
And this leads me to Hashimoto…
I would resist comparison with Hitler, except that, unlike Hashimoto (who admitted in his ‘comfort women denial’ tweets that he knows nothing of history), I am a firm believer that knowledge of history prevents it’s repetition.
Hashimoto has not embarked on a genocide yet. But it we can still examine Hitler’s rise to power through extreme popularity, and draw lessons from that. If we fail to use these analytical tools (even if our fears proved unfounded), we would be making a mistake.Hashimoto’s poor grasp of history is evident in his statements in the international relations arena, and can be easily explained. He is a product of a post-war J-education system that has actively sought to revise the narrative of the war, and white-wash Japan’s crimes in favor of portraying Japan as the under-dog victim. Hence he is not only KY regarding the international impact of his statements, but totally a product of his times. He may actually be unaware of the 2 UN investigations into the comfort women issue, in much the same way as most Japanese are not aware that the ’45 surrender document quoted the Potsdam Declaration, which in turn quoted the Cairo Declaration, which specifies that;
“The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we (China, Russia, UK and US) determine.”It is a failing of the J-education system, and the J-media that the Japanese are not aware of this piece of international law, and rather than seeing the Senkaku’s as territory grabbed during the imperialist-era, instead regard it as an integral piece of historic (and therefore sacred) Japan.
