A survey Japan Youth Research Institute suggests that even fewer Japanese high school kids like China and South Korea than Chinese and South Korean high school kids like Japan, with Japanese students being particularly down on China.
About this, Plunge asks a very good question:
Sphere: Related ContentGee, and here I thought it was only those emotional Koreans and Chinese that didn’t like the Japanese. At least that is what I hear from Japnophiles. “Korea teaches their kids to hate Japan.” is the rant. So where does the hatred of Korea and China come from in the Japanese students?
47 Comments
Some Japanese have a superiority complex, and they consider the Chinese and Koreans to be inferior. Prejudice seems to run deep in Japan.
And some Koreans have an inferiority complex, which keeps the sadomasochistic relations between the two countries spinning around and around.
China and Japan are on the warpath. It is very important for Koreans to detach from both countries. What Korea do? Stupid Korean government is distancing itself from the US government and buddying up to the Chinese.
A wrong move. It will destroy Korea.
I would guess it is a cycle. I don’t know Japan. Been there. Got to know a few Japanese very well, but nothing much beyond that. So, I am speaking from ignorance…
but…
How much would it take for me as a Japanese to be down on Korea and China?
First, if I didn’t know much about the history of my nation in the world the last 100 years, I might not know why the Koreans and Chinese and other complain so much.
But, also, if what I did see were the kind of apologies and working relationship Japan has had with these nations the last 50 years…
…and I happened to catch wind about how frequently (weekly even) Korean society (and I guess China though I don’t know for sure) like to piss all over Japan…
I might get bitter.
The way I see it, you can’t continually beat up on someone for the sins of the father or worse yet - the grandfather - and not expect them to feel a grievance against you.
Japan not digging into its history enough is annoying, but to me, from this distance, I would think unless I started hearing Japanese leaders or the bulk of the society crying for a return to the great days of empire, it makes no sense to hate every generation that has come since 1945 —- especially when Japan is a nation I can profit from having a relationship with — which both Korea and China do.
South Korean society wants to treat Japan as it is perpetually the 1940s or 1950s. Well, they want to treat Japan like that in certain ways — somewhat like they do the US in Korea. They want to feel better about Korea by pounding on Japan — but they don’t believe they should really do anything about it.
What I mean is — if Korean society really believed contemporary Japan was a big problem because of its historical amnesia — that the way Japan is today is a threat or troublemaker for Korean society —- they should take steps to isolate Japan from themselves.
But, besides from public rhetoric, is that what they are doing?
I guess today, I’m not as sure as I used to be, but before Roh, it was clear South Korea felt just fine working with Japan and making money with Japan, but like a whore, they loved ot hate it too.
Now, seeing how horrible the year of Japan-Korea friendship went, I have a little doubt about whether the current Korean administration isn’t determined to isolate Japan just as it is moving to isolate South Korea from the US.
Whatevery the case, my guess is this is good for the US.
Shoving Japan into the US corner gives us a proven strong ally who’s economic strength is still world class.
It will be bad for the US if things get so bad in the next 50 years that China-Korea vs Japan start moving toward exchanging blows, but, that is a unlikely outcome.
Money rules the world today for nations like these — not military strength. If China is going to fullfill the potential everybody sees in it, it can’t afford to alienate Japanese finance, and if South Korea wants to avoid complete eclipse by a rising China, and it wants to have even a prayer of surviving (an unwanted) unification with the North, it can’t afford to sever ties with Japan much more than today either.
So, what we will probably see 50 years from now is a Korea still divided, minus US forces, and Japan and the US locked together much like the UK-US have been since WWII.
And that’s not too bad for the US, I would think.
The reason why so many expats turn out to be Japanophile apologists is because incessant complaining, grievances and rehashing of history by Korea and China remind them too much of how militant Blacks in America incessantly complain about racism and 400 years of slavery. Whites are tired of white guilt-tripping and can easily identify with Japanese who are tired of similar guilt-tripping by former Japan colonies.
The white expats projects his own feelings about Black-vs-White from back home into the Japan-vs-the Rest of Asia issues.
fight the power bluejives, fight the power…
usinkorea wrote:
The way I see it, you can’t continually beat up on someone for the sins of the father or worse yet - the grandfather - and not expect them to feel a grievance against you.
What you’re failing to see is that these flare-ups often occur because the sons and the grandsons are still publicly justifying the sins of the fathers and the grandfathers. Someone on the Japanese side (e.g., a high-ranking Japanese politician) saying in the 1990s or the Zeroes something like, “the Comfort Women were mostly prostitutes,” or, “The annexation of Korea was legal,” etc. It tends to negate the positive efforts to express contrition for the actions prior to the end of World War II
Japan not digging into its history enough is annoying, but to me, from this distance, I would think unless I started hearing Japanese leaders or the bulk of the society crying for a return to the great days of empire, it makes no sense to hate every generation that has come since 1945 —- especially when Japan is a nation I can profit from having a relationship with — which both Korea and China do.
Well, from a Korean point of view, saying that the annexation of Korea was legal may very well be seen as a sign of Japan’s leadership not having truly shed imperial designs. Ditto with continued claims to islands they were able to grab as a direct result of having stripped Korea of its sovereignty.
That said, I do agree that some of the feeling here (for whatever this survey is worth, since I don’t know enough about the methodology to know how reliable this survey is) is probably due to backlash, and some of that backlash occurs because many young Japanese don’t really know enough about their own country’s history to know why the Chinese, Koreans, and others are still upset about things related to that.
bluejives, that’s a really interesting theory. I don’t really believe it, but it is indeed interesting. How do you explain ex-pats in Korea who think Korea is right? Do they have to be black to understand? Does everyone gang up on the white guy? I don’t think that’s the case.
usinkorea, I think you’re more on the money. From the perspective of most Japanese people, Japan has apologized many a times, and also given lots of money. When loud (majority or minority I can’t say) China/Korea/others say Japan hasn’t apologized, people stop listening because that is not true. Those need to make it clear that they think what has been done is not sufficient otherwise they’ll be labeled as a nation of chronic liars. Unfortunately, in the case of China, the average person seems to truly believe that Japan has never once apologized. When the issue comes up with international students here it almost always turns out to be the first time many Chinese students learnt that Japan has apologized. The Chinese governmental system combined with the restricted flow of information makes it very easy to produce a nation of 1.3 trillion who think Japan hasn’t changed since the early 1900’s. Even in Korea, which has much more freedoms and much better trade of information, the details of the 1964 normalization of relations act were top-secret until early 2005. The average person didn’t know how much Japan gave to the victims, and didn’t know how much the Korean government stole from them. This was common knowledge in Japan. In the eye’s of the average Japanese citizen who knows what Japan has done since 1945 to pay for it’s parents and grandparents sins, the Chinese person who thinks Japan has never apologized and the Korean person who thinks Japan has never made reparations for comfort women and slave labor is a liar — naturally the children don’t like liars. Would we have the Japanese be a nation of people who have good feelings of liars?
It is indeed important for both sides to understand each others history so that they can understand that 60 years ago was 60 years ago; that we are not living in 1945 but 2006. All the attention that is given to a textbook used by less then 1% of schools in Japan is a complete joke when it comes from the above mentioned China and Korea. Again, it is important for BOTH sides to understand the complete picture, not just for everyone to know that Imperial Japan, a now defunct non-existant empire was bad in the past.
As for Kushibo and others who think Japanese people don’t know anything about their own history; you’re ignorant. Consider picking up a Japanese textbook, and don’t go for your tsukurukai one. You can say it’s a bad book all you want, but the truth of the matter is it is a success in the education system that allows schools to choose textbooks on their own. Even the textbook that you falsely believe says things didn’t happen gets passed, it’s used only for schools for mentally handicapped children (
NO!! my comment got eating by the syntax comment eating monster.
… which is less then one percent of all total schools. Don’t forget that Japan, in which high school is optional, the high school graduation rate is higher then that of the US where high school is mandatory. So anyways, take a look at any of the books the other 99% of middle schools in Japan use and then try and say Japan doesn’t know anything about it’s own history. In the case of a Chinese people who do not have access to information, in the case of the Korean people who until only recently did not have access to information, the problem is not the people who could not know the complete truth, but the government who refuses (refused) to let them know the truth which is at fault. However one have access to information freely. One could simply look this up and find out, however many choose either not to look at the information, or ignore it so they can continue to spread lies. This claim of “understanding history” goes both ways, and the effects are to be felt both ways too.
Just as a point of information, how many of you actually have a large number of Japanese friends with whom you have spoken with on the issue of Japanese reparations for the actions of the Japanese circa WWII?
My perspective may be skewed because by and large, the Japanese people I have encountered are Korea-philes here to learn Korean and are completely apologetic for Japan’s past, however they do note that to equate the actions of their grandparents to their actions is unfair and is misplaced antipathy.
Darin ranted:
As for Kushibo and others who think Japanese people don’t know anything about their own history; you’re ignorant. Consider picking up a Japanese textbook, and don’t go for your tsukurukai one.
Darin, go back and read what I wrote:
I have no doubt in my mind that many (hopefully most) young Japanese people know enough about their own country’s history. I’ve met many of them (though I’ve also met Japanese tourists in Korea who didn’t know that Japan had occuped Korea for almost four decades, but I hope they’re a small minority).
Darin, you would do much better understanding my comments if you would pay attention to the qualifiers within the sentence:
I wrote:
many young Japanese…
Darin interpreted it as…
Japanese people… [in general? Most of them? Almost all of them?]
I wrote:
…don’t really know enough about their country’s history…
Darin interpreted it as:
…don’t know anything…
I wrote:
to know why the Chinese, Koreans, and others are still upset about things related to that.
Until you can properly interpret simple English, don’t call me ignorant. You’re ranting against a point I did not make and would not support in civilized discourse. Consider picking up a grammar textbook, and don’t go for the Dick & Jane one.
I have picked up Japanese textbooks before. I used to be engaged to someone who was a high school teacher in the Japanese school system and discussed this very issue. I also know a Japanese high school history teacher who was involved in pushing a progressive textbook in Japan in the 1990s. I have, on Korean news programs, made some of the very claims you have about the textbook issue, in 2001 and recently.
Note also that I posited that some of the attitude was due to backlash, and that some—only some—of that backlash was due to the lack of full understanding of their country’s role in those countries. Note also that the same could be said of many other countries, including Korea.
Just as a point of information, how many of you actually have a large number of Japanese friends with whom you have spoken with on the issue of Japanese reparations for the actions of the Japanese circa WWII?
My perspective may be skewed because by and large, the Japanese people I have encountered are Korea-philes here to learn Korean and are completely apologetic for Japan’s past, however they do note that to equate the actions of their grandparents to their actions is unfair and is misplaced antipathy.
Likewise.
Just as a point of information, how many of you actually have a large number of Japanese friends with whom you have spoken with on the issue of Japanese reparations for the actions of the Japanese circa WWII?
[Kushibo raises his hand]
My perspective may be skewed because by and large, the Japanese people I have encountered are Korea-philes here to learn Korean and are completely apologetic for Japan’s past,
Well, largely unapologetic. Interestingly, the “Japanese” I heard most steadfastly defend the actions of the Japanese government, the ones that were most critical of Koreans on these matters, were chaeil kyopo.
however they do note that to equate the actions of their grandparents to their actions is unfair and is misplaced antipathy.
There is no reason AT ALL for someone to react violently against or expect an individual everyday Japanese person to answer for this, but when modern Japanese politicos make not infrequent comments about the issue, it is hardly just “their grandparents” against whom anger or criticism should be directed.
e Korean person who thinks Japan has never made reparations for comfort women and slave labor is a liar
Darin, since you seem to have a hyper-simplistic understanding of my view on these issues, it may surprise the hell out of you that I agree that the ROK government in the 1960s did wrong by the victims of Imperial Japan vis-a-vis the “reparations,” by not giving adequate money to ROK citizens for which it was intended to cover.
Of course, there are many problems with the situation as it stands. First, the “reparations” were inadequate from the beginning, an issue that could have been (and perhaps should have been) had the actual victims been able to directly seek reparations.
This problem is the fault of both the ROK government, for not releasing all the money it was supposed to, and the Japanese government, for seeking to do an end-run around larger and fairer claims by the actual victims by trying to seek a blanket release by dealing with a non-democratic military junta that arguably had no right to speak for the victims on whose behalf these negotiations supposedly were held.
Then there is this substantial problem, a moral issue as much as a legal issue: How can the Japanese government claim, as you said, to have made reparations in 1965 for the so-called Comfort Women, when the same government denied government involvement in the Comfort Women issue until the mid-1990s?
“There is no reason AT ALL for someone to react violently against or expect an individual everyday Japanese person to answer for this, but when modern Japanese politicos make not infrequent comments about the issue, it is hardly just “their grandparents” against whom anger or criticism should be directed.”
Kushibo, I agree with much of what you write… but I have to ask here, at what point do you draw the line on blame?
When I said the actions of ‘their grandfathers’ I really meant ‘their grandfather’s generation’. Not much distinction I suppose, but the politicos you speak of are from that generation and the generation that followed. Should the entirety of America be condemned for the hate speech of David Duke or the idiocy of Pat Buchanan? I realize I ask a lot of rhetorical questions, but honestly, just because an elected offical speaks, it doesn’t necessarily mean they speak for an entire country. I, for one, am not represented by the foot-in-mouth afflicted politicos currently in control of the US Government, specifically in office of the President of the United States.
Conversely, I suppose the views of politicos are indicative of the attitudes of the segment of society they represent. So for an elected official to deny Japan’s war past, it follows that there is a whole segment of Japanese society which does not apologize for its past.
The other extreme would be to have laws like those in Austria which punish those who deny the Holocause. That’s a bit too much too. If people are going to deny the past, let them. Only a fool would believe things like the holocaust never happened.
To wit: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/a.....60,00.html
David Duke and Pat Buchanan? An apples and oranges comparison with prime ministers and foreign ministers and other cabinet members or party leaders in the 1990s and the Zeroes.
honestly, just because an elected offical speaks, it doesn’t necessarily mean they speak for an entire country. I, for one, am not represented by the foot-in-mouth afflicted politicos currently in control of the US Government, specifically in office of the President of the United States.
They may not represent your point of view, but they sure as hell represent your country. When Bush says, “you’re either for us or against us,” that’s your country at work.
And let’s take a lesser politico who puts his foot in his mouth. Take Trent Lott, who said publicly that America would have been a better place had Strom Thurmond been elected president. Considering that Strom Thurmond was running to support segregation, it was reasonably taken as a statement that American would have been better off had segregation remained the law of much of the land. That kind of thinking does not represent the position of either major political party today, and Lott was pressured to resign his position as Senate Majority Leader. And then there is Senatory Byrd, who used to be in the KKK, and a local wizard in fact. He has since repudiated his involvement, calling it a major mistake.
So if you want to compare Japan with the United States, that’s the kind of thing you have to work with.
Then there is this substantial problem, a moral issue as much as a legal issue: How can the Japanese government claim, as you said, to have made reparations in 1965 for the so-called Comfort Women, when the same government denied government involvement in the Comfort Women issue until the mid-1990s?
One problem with this is that the Japanese government specifically said they were NOT reparations for any wrong doing and, in fact, admitted no wrong doing. These were ‘loans’ and ‘grants’ and there is dispute over whether this actually covers individual claims or government claims in general. Using the 1965 agreement to cover all issues is disingenuous.
kushibo-
“David Duke and Pat Buchanan? An apples and oranges comparison with prime ministers and foreign ministers and other cabinet members or party leaders in the 1990s and the Zeroes.
You’re right, in a moment of uber-zealousness, I used extreme examples to make somewhat of a false analogy, you got me.
However, perhaps due to limited reading on the Japan side of politics, I haven’t seen Koizumi or others in cabinet posts blatantly deny wrongdoing, while some of the older pundits have. You have to admit, the 90’s are a different decade. That’s like saying the Clinton administration and the Bush Pt 2 administration represent the same ideals. Maybe that’s straying from your original point, you had said ‘modern politicos’. I thought you meant current (this decade) elected officials.
“They may not represent your point of view, but they sure as hell represent your country. When Bush says, “you’re either for us or against us,” that’s your country at work.”
So … do you persecute everyone in the country for Bush or just those who voted for him?
How can this many people misunderstand the English language?!
The survey — or at least, the Reuters story — does NOT tell us how many students DISLIKE the country in question. That “only” 10% of Japanese students like Japan is meaningless without knowing how many dislike it; for all we know, 90% could feel neutral towards China.
That last sentence should read:
That “only” 10% of Japanese students like China is meaningless without knowing how many dislike it; for all we know, 90% could feel neutral towards China.
Curzon,
I also find the results a little fishy. Despite the incidents that make for big headlines in the papers, there is enough positive free flow of tourists, students, business, trade, etc., etc. between the Korea and Japan that those numbers don’t seem to add up. At the very least it would seem the like neutral numbers would be well into the majority range.
What did I miss here? What’s the issue? Koreans don’t like non-Koreans, and Koreans are not well liked outside Korea. What’s so surprising about the golden rule?
Economic competition in N-E Asia is intensifying, and the lifelong guaranteed employment by the chaebol and zaibatsu is evaporating, so expect even more animosity between youths in Korea, Japan and China as long as job security is an issue and their respective gov’ts play the nationalist card whenever there are domestic elections or politicians who need a boost at the polls.
This article on Japanese youth is a little old but still relevant:
http://www2.gol.com/users/coyn.....nation.htm
Economic competition in N-E Asia is intensifying, and the lifelong guaranteed employment by the chaebol and zaibatsu is evaporating, so expect even more animosity between youths in Korea, Japan and China as long as job security is an issue and their respective gov’ts play the nationalist card whenever there are domestic elections or politicians who need a boost at the polls.
A giant sucking sound.
Tortilla chips versus computer chips.
Tortilla chips…with guacamole from Costco…and salsa from Namdaemun…and wine from Chile…
My point is that South Korea’s desire to detest Japan for the past today is both counter-productive for Korean society and a facade.
Whether we are talking about the US, France, South Korea or China, what is good for the people today is to focus on what will be good for the people tomorrow.
Does South Korea believe it is going to gain anything by continuing to view the Japanese as un-reformed colonizers? The idea that “from the Korean perspective” shrine visits and statements on comfort women might prove Japan is ready to become a colonial power or gives good enough reason for South Korea’s attitude toward Japan is hooey.
It is asking me to go to far to put myself in Korea’s shoes and believe they really believe Japan has shown enough “signs” that it has not shed its aggressive imperial plans “from the Korean perspective.”
And part of this is what I said in the previous comment too. That if SK really believed Japan was the #2 military threat to it, as it has said in its governmental views and as the hate-Japan mentality likes to say it believes, they would do much more to protect itself against Japan. They would put their money and military where their mouths are.
I think much of Korea’s contemporary tendancy to hate Japan —- to have it common for elementary students to tell me “I hate the Japanese” —- is part of its habit to define its own nationalism through antagonism viewed from other nations.
I think if France and other nations in Europe had followed the Korean path, the situation in Europe today would be fundamentally worse than it is today.
I have no problem accepting that what are today the older generations in France or South Korea or elsewhere will still have a bitter feeling toward the nation or nations that caused them so much pain in the first half of the 20th century, but in my opinion, South Korea’s tendancy to hate Japan does harm to the health of South Korean society today and especially its future hopes.
Korea will unify one day, and it will need boat loads of cash at developmental loan rates or gifts.
It would be MUCH better for South Korea if it treated Japan like an ally rather than enemy.
Japan’s economic strength will be more important to South Korea’s future than that of a rising China.
“I think much of Korea’s contemporary tendancy to hate Japan —- to have it common for elementary students to tell me “I hate the Japanese” —- is part of its habit to define its own nationalism through antagonism viewed from other nations.” Nail on head. Korea should be at the forefront of organizing a N-E Asian economic bloc, but it’s too busy burning bridges.
It is already oldfashioned. Korea is out of fashion, and they are hating the wrong person. Shouldn’t they be hating China too? That shows how Koreans are blind. And what president Roh Moo Hyun is doing?
While they hate Japan they are giving a footground to Chinese. They don’t see that hating Japan, they are doing exactly what China wants. I repeat Koreans are blind.
Why don’t they hate China too that tries to steal our country, and been a threat in all history?
Well, bluejives, to add to your “study” of expats, I’m one who does not favor the Japanese over the Koreans. After all, both are racist and ethnocentric peoples with unwarranted superiority complexes.
I note, however, that for all the love white America supposedly has for Japan, America was what fought and defeated the Japanese, freeing countless Chinese and Koreans.
“What did I miss here? What’s the issue? Koreans don’t like non-Koreans, and Koreans are not well liked outside Korea. What’s so surprising about the golden rule?”
The Golden Rule really doesn’t have a lot of currency in Asia, does it?
And bluejives, a lot of Western expats prefer Japanese to Koreans and Chinese simply because the Japanese idea of etiquette and proper behavior in public is much closer to our own.
Emerging markets often have underdeveloped infrastructure, a lack of business-facilitation structures and weak or missing regulatory bodies. Traditionally, large business groups form in such environments face this challenge of a failed market-what economists refer to as “transaction costs.” Emerging economies are also apt to protect their own markets from foreign competition during this growth period.
However, under pressure from foreign competition, FTAs, foreign acquisitions, financial crises and the like, large business groups evolve to refocus on what they do best and support specific groups that are competitive while cutting out groups that may not fare in the face of global competition. In South Korea, where thirty large business groups account for forty percent of the country’s economic activity, we should be seeing more refocusing with drastic refocusing to take place in light of the fast-tracked US FTA and recent foreign takeover pressure. Specifically, the lifelong guaranteed employment (most of which was scrapped after 97-98) isn’t much expected by by many anymore. There is the increased competition in NE Asia to be sure, but the natural evolution of emerging markets in the global economies necessitates tighter competition.
My blockquote got screwed on the above for some reason. Should just be the first paragraph. Anyway, the point is that it’s not just the increased competition but the role that chaebol have played in a failed marketplace that changes as an emerging economy evolves.
Police erroneously arrest ‘Asian-looking’ Japanese woman on immigration law breach
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 07:01 EST
SAITAMA — The Saitama prefectural police on Monday arrested a Japanese woman on suspicion of violating the immigration law but later released her after discovering that she was a Japanese national, police officials said.
The police had judged that the unemployed woman, 28, was not Japanese because she looked like a foreigner of Asian descent and that she carried an envelope written in Portuguese, the officials said. The woman was questioned by a policeman around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday in Kawaguchi. She told the officer that she was Japanese, but stopped answering further questions, the officials said. The woman’s family said she is not good at speaking with strangers.
It’s the Japanese equivalent of “driving while Black”: “walking while looking non-Japanese Asian.”
Kushibo, you’re talking nonsense. Matt said it best — the woman was detained after she refused to answer ANY of the police questions. You have a right to remain silent after you’ve been arraigned by the police and are a suspect in a crime. But refusing to answer any questions to police when you’re just being asked questions and you’re just asking yourself to get detained.
In all my years in Japan I’ve been “stopped” by police on average less than once a year, all while riding my bicycle. Each time I’ve answered police questions politely and they let me go within minutes. According to the law, police are allowed to see the foreigner registration card from non-nationals (upon showing their identification). I know naturalized Japanese citizens who have been stopped after taking Japanese citizenship. The procedure is remarkably simple: “I don’t have a card, I’m a Japanese citizen.” End of story.
If a Japanese citizen who does not look ethnically Japanese and “pretends” to not know Japanese, they get exactly what’s coming to them.
Curzon, I’m not talking nonsense; I was talking sarcastically. You took that glib comment way too seriously.
This was, it appears, a rare and exceptional case.
But your “defense” of the situation has piqued my interest in this now.
So you are stopped an average of less than once a year? No one in my closest circle of international residents has ever been stopped and asked to show their documents (in fact, many don’t carry them at all, which is a foolish no-no, just in case something unexpected does happen). None of the people from South or Southeast Asia that I know—and that is admittedly not a lot of people—has told me of such incidents, and it has come up in discussion.
Didn’t the woman in question say she was Japanese? Why, if your naturalized Japanese buddies are given a green light to leave at that point, was she not?
Anyway, I think this is being made into a big deal perhaps BECAUSE it is such a rare and unusual case.
Kushibo: I am familiar enough with your thoughts on Japan that I -doubt- do not believe your assertion that the previous comment was sarcasm.
The arrested woman was half Japanese who obtained her citizenship by birth, she does not live in Japan and she does not speak Japanese. Imagine the following back and forth:
Police: Show me your foreigner registration card.
Woman: (Broken Japanese) I am Japanese.
Police: Oh really?
Woman: …
Police: Do you have any form of ID on you?
Woman: …
Police: Do you understand what I’m saying?
Woman: …
Police: If you’re Japanese why don’t you speak Japanese?
Woman: …
If illegal immigrants who didn’t speak Japanese and who could get out of all police checks by just learning, “I’m Japanese!” we’d have a mess on our hands. If the woman could knew enough to say, “I was born and raised in India but I’m a Japanese citizen” she never would have had this problem.
Kushibo: I am familiar enough with your thoughts on Japan that I -doubt- do not believe your assertion that the previous comment was sarcasm.
My thoughts on “Japan”? Oh, you Japanphiles really need to understand that criticism of Japan’s right-wing politicos is not the same as disliking Japan.
But go for it. Quote me. Don’t paraphrase something I’ve written; quote me and show my negative views toward Japan that are not actually just criticisms of right-wing Japanese policies or politicos.
I happen to like Japan very much. I have relatives there, I have visited it many, many times, and I hope, after getting my PhD, to spend some time doing research and/or teaching there. Don’t impugn my liking of Japan just because you have deemed by point of view about Japan’s far-right to be “anti-Japan.”
By the way, the wordiness of the “walking while looking non-Japanese Asian” was, I thought, a giveaway that I was being sarcastic.
Oh, you Japan bashers really need to understand that claiming to like Japan and have relatives there is not the same as liking Japan. Like the American bigot who says, “Actually, I have black friends!”
Now, now, Curzon. Criticizing the disagreeable politics of the leadership in some country is not the same as bashing that country. By that logic, I would be anti-Korean as well.
And no, having voluntarily visted Japan many times, having Japanese relatives, having learned (but sadly, mostly forgotten) Japanese language, having been engaged to someone from Japan, having minored in Japanese Studies, and professing a strong liking of Japan, is not the equivalent of an American bigot saying, “Actually, I have Black friends.”
For those of you in Rio Linda, Koizumi/Yasukuni criticism =/= Japan bashing. You’d need a lot more than that for it to be Japan bashing.
Kushibo, I was talking sarcastically. You took that glib comment way too seriously.
Well, I guess I missed that. I’m so used to seeing some of the regular commenters on a couple of the blogs you frequent calling me a Japan basher, I didn’t recognize the one time it was meant ironically.
A survey Japan Youth Research Institute suggests that even fewer Japanese high school kids like China and South Korea than Chinese and South Korean high school kids like Japan, with Japanese students being particularly down on China.
Ooof….breeding, like dogs, but worse, like people who are bred to not think.
Japanese hostility towards China shouldn’t really be a surprise - China has spent a lot of time beating up on Japan over territorial issues - among other things, it claims the entire South China Sea as Chinese territorial waters. China is also the power that may have provided a lot of North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons capability. North Korea sides with China, and South Korea recently said that it is moving towards siding with China. When you have a country that is increasingly the target of belligerent rhetoric from its neighbors, you can expect a backlash. Note that anti-Japanese demonstrations in Korea and China are usually violent. Japanese nationals have been beaten up in China and property has been damaged or destroyed (with the collaboration of Chinese security forces, who never allow this kind of thing to happen with much larger groups of Falungong demonstrators), including Japanese consulates. The fact is that China and North Korea are hostile nuclear powers, and South Korea is a hostile non-nuclear power. And they are all within jet fighter range of Japan.