Is anyone else still slightly creeped out by the Japanese?

POSTED BY: kpo
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:47
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KPO

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:47 AM

Quote:
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"Basically, Japanese people are very law-abiding. We have been taught not to swim when there are no lifeguards," he says. "Same with traffic lights. You don't see many people jaywalk here do you?"

It's true. Even along car-free country lanes, people tend to wait patiently for the cross signal.

What happens on 1 September is that lifeguards vanish, because local authorities pull them from the beaches and close all amenities. Summer-season beach bars and restaurants are also meekly dismantled.

"Many of us are so submissive to authority that we will never think to challenge the status quo," says Sato.

Indoctrination starts at school. Children are drilled: "Follow the rules. Don't be selfish. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

They learn that custom decreed long ago that autumn (the time you halt beach trips and instead do autumny things) returns at midnight on 31 August precisely. Only a barbarian would be foolish enough to disregard "correct behaviour" that has been established over generations by broad consent.

"Most Japanese are very conscious of the 'four seasons' and what they should do for each season," another Tokyoite and beach lover, Yukiko Oono, tells me.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29429742

FREMDFIRMA

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 8:49 AM

That's a bit of an ongoing theme of some of my arguments with them and their culture - Yuriko even agrees with me about it, that by rooting their culture in such obedience they are destroying the meaning of their own lives.

This is, in my opinion, what causes hikikomori, NOT social anxiety, but a variant form of C-PTSD on a wider scale in combination with an absolute repudiation of the values forced on them by their society, Zielenziger has done some work on it also.

Retreating Youth Become Japan's 'Lost Generation'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6535284

Of course, there's other cultural flaws which flow from the same root, such as the ridiculous level of misogyny in that society, especially the conservative end of it - generally second children are viewed poorly, and in a culture where one is expected to marry off the first daughter only to improve their social and economic standing, every daughter past that is subject to the viewpoint, often within their own family, that they're a waste of space.
Which is why a backwater shinto temple to a childrens kami wound up overflowing with miko, because those families dumped them on Yuriko as a surrogate mother to be RID of them, hell some of em weren't even welcome in their own homes fer crying out loud.
(which is mind you, one of the only reasons I play along with her intentions.)

Sure, some of it's population pressure and no ROOM for individual expression, but with a declining population and advances in technology that's no longer the excuse it once was, and part and parcel of why I see hikikomori for what they are, people who refuse to "play ball" with social and cultural norms they find offensive or unconscienable.

Believe me, understanding their culture better than most westerners doesn't make me any fonder of it, which some folks might assume because I do appreciate some of their arts.

I will say we could learn a thing or two from em about public transportation systems and infrastructure though.

-Frem

SECOND

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 9:13 AM

Want to know about the Japanese? Look at the 61-volume official biography of Emperor Hirohito about to be published. The Japanese are pushed around by their teeny-tiny hierarchy and the results are terrible for ordinary Japanese. But do they revolt against the hierarchy? No. They are 127 million robots taking orders from only 300,000 leaders and then marching to their deaths. BANZAI!

Quote:
The official history confirms Hirohito’s bullheadedness in delaying surrender when it was clear that defeat was inevitable. He hoped desperately to enlist Stalin’s Soviet Union to obtain more favorable peace terms. Had Japan surrendered sooner, the firebombing of its cities, and the two atomic bombings, might have been avoided.

Why does all this matter, nearly 70 years since the end of the war?

Unlike Germany, where acceptance of responsibility for the Nazis’ crimes is embedded in government policy, Japan’s government has never engaged in a full-scale reckoning of its wartime conduct. This is partly because of the anti-imperialist dimension of the war it fought against Western powers, and partly because of America’s support for European colonialism in the early Cold War. But it is also a result of a deliberate choice — abetted by the education system and the mass media, with notable exceptions — to overlook or distort issues of accountability.

www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/opinion/hirohito-string-puller-not-puppet.h
tml

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 11:36 AM

Not really.

KPO

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 4:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Want to know about the Japanese? Look at the 61-volume official biography of Emperor Hirohito about to be published. The Japanese are pushed around by their teeny-tiny hierarchy and the results are terrible for ordinary Japanese. But do they revolt against the hierarchy? No. They are 127 million robots taking orders from only 300,000 leaders and then marching to their deaths. BANZAI!
Quote:
The official history confirms Hirohito’s bullheadedness in delaying surrender when it was clear that defeat was inevitable. He hoped desperately to enlist Stalin’s Soviet Union to obtain more favorable peace terms. Had Japan surrendered sooner, the firebombing of its cities, and the two atomic bombings, might have been avoided.

Why does all this matter, nearly 70 years since the end of the war?

Unlike Germany, where acceptance of responsibility for the Nazis’ crimes is embedded in government policy, Japan’s government has never engaged in a full-scale reckoning of its wartime conduct. This is partly because of the anti-imperialist dimension of the war it fought against Western powers, and partly because of America’s support for European colonialism in the early Cold War. But it is also a result of a deliberate choice — abetted by the education system and the mass media, with notable exceptions — to overlook or distort issues of accountability.
www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/opinion/hirohito-string-puller-not-puppet.h
tml

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

The failure to take accountability for their wartime atrocities is the second reason I feel discomfited by them, despite their largely peaceful and positive role they have played in the world since then.

It's not personal. It's just war.

AURAPTOR

Thursday, October 2, 2014 3:33 AM

I thought this was going to be about the weird sex fetishes of the Japanese , despite their outward appearances of being proper and respectful.

I basically just ignore it all.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Thursday, October 2, 2014 4:56 AM

Their refusal to account for their actions includes the wartime beheading of U.S. Marine Prisoners of War. The Japanese beheaded the POWs after some time in confinement.

That they insist upon erasing that from their history, or possibly accepting it (for those more inquisitive) is very irksome.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Thursday, October 2, 2014 5:42 AM

It's pretty unusual for countries to take responsibility for their wartime actions, atrocities or otherwise. Germany is an incredible exception, and I guess they really had no choice.

Most countries, cultures write history to show themselves as the heroic victors or the innocent victims. In war, both are usually fabricated stories.

It was an interesting decision allowing the Japanese Emperor to remain in power, albeit as just a figure head, at the end of the war.

I dont find Japanese culture at all creepy, it's just a different culture, some parts I dont like and some I admire.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Friday, October 3, 2014 3:43 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
It's pretty unusual for countries to take responsibility for their wartime actions, atrocities or otherwise. Germany is an incredible exception, and I guess they really had no choice.

Most countries, cultures write history to show themselves as the heroic victors or the innocent victims. In war, both are usually fabricated stories.

It was an interesting decision allowing the Japanese Emperor to remain in power, albeit as just a figure head, at the end of the war.

I dont find Japanese culture at all creepy, it's just a different culture, some parts I dont like and some I admire.

Mostly, history is written by the victors.
That is why the Japanese example is particularly atrocious.

KPO

Friday, October 3, 2014 5:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
It's pretty unusual for countries to take responsibility for their wartime actions, atrocities or otherwise. Germany is an incredible exception, and I guess they really had no choice.

Most countries, cultures write history to show themselves as the heroic victors or the innocent victims. In war, both are usually fabricated stories.

It was an interesting decision allowing the Japanese Emperor to remain in power, albeit as just a figure head, at the end of the war.

I dont find Japanese culture at all creepy, it's just a different culture, some parts I dont like and some I admire.

Mostly, history is written by the victors.
That is why the Japanese example is particularly atrocious.

Good point.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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