Japaneseism: Subtle Fascism
As I have said, there is no way that the Japanese are going to let the Yakuza dominated right wing impose pre-war militarism on Japan.
At the end of World War II, Japan was poor. It had been totally destroyed. Its major cities had been leveled — and not just the cities — the social hierarchy.
The America occupiers were big, healthy — and rich.
The Japanese are known for copying ideas but they, like the Chinese, are not just copiers. Rather, they are adapters and situationalists, borrowing ideas from the Americans and adapting them to fit their own situation and culture.
The Japanese quickly realized that the Americans had triumphed thanks to a combination of resources and economic power. Power=economics.
They saw the American system of subtle or stealth totalitarianism with clear eyes. America was a slave culture. First, black slavery. Then wage slavery. A very vertical society, as vertical in its own way as Japan. Americans occupied Japan; so the Japanese were slaves, too.
This, however, was Greek comedy re-born — with the Japanese playing the role of the “wily” or “clever” slave.
Japan’s current social and political system evolved and its economy prospered, taking advantage first of America’s involvement in the Korean war. The leveling of Japanese cities, had fostered a unique kind of national consensus. Although the American-installed government was not representative of the people but rather to business, economic recovery was in the best interest of everyone. It was not only Japanese cities that had been leveled: it was the entire society.
The Japanese went to work. First, they took over the world’s consumer appliance industry. Then, came automobiles.
But the “Japanese Miracle” faded. Society became progressively more unequal. And therefore, neither business, bureaucratic or political groups were increasingly isolated from ordinary people and their lives.
The public can do nothing. The educational system discourages debate and discussion. Japanese people are a village culture. They value conformity. Nobody likes to stand out. And when they do, there are usually consequences.
Now, things are reaching crisis proportions. The population is declining more rapidly than any other in the world. Lifetime employment is a myth. And governmental competence is a cruel joke.
A good example is the Tokyo Olympic debacle.
About 80% of Japanese want to see the Olympics cancelled but successive administrations have insisted they must go ahead. Big Media would lose money. Can’t have that.
The LDP is also still pushing for revision of the “peace constitution”.
Almost 70% of Japanese oppose changes to the constitution. And just over 30% of the public approve of the LDP leadership. But that changes nothing.
Where is the moral outrage? As in American, nowhere.
Nakane Chie, the famous Japanese anthropologists wrote, “the Japanese have no principles”. They are situationalists. One must wait for real emergencies for there to be change.
Betwixt and Between
The Japanese public, aware of their powerlessness, are not much interested in international ethics or even international relations, in general — that’s the job of the business elites, which face a very big problem.
China is Japan’s biggest trading partner and Japan needs Eurasian — Chinese and Russian business and resources.
But Japan is still reliant on US and its European empire. The dangers of non-compliance with the Empire are real. As Japan is well aware, the US does not see a middle ground. As George Bush said, “you are either with us or against us”.
If US turned against Japan, as it did against Russia after Yeltsin — there would be no Japanese Putin to turn things around.
How can Japan — the “wily slave” trick its master?
The Japanese feel no real loyalty or obligation to the US. So they must constantly “work” at pretense. They constantly seek to reassure the Americans of their loyalty as any junior (kohai) does his/her senior (senpai) in Japan but Americans are not Japanese, this is mere posturing.
Japanese “loyalty”: is party born of fear, for the two American atomic bombings demonstrated to the Japanese for all time how little regard the Americans have for the lives of “others” outside their control.
They understand that 50% of the American GDP is dependent on the “military — industrial complex”, and that the US sees Japan first and foremost in terms of geopolitical military strategy. Bases, bases, bases.
The Japanese don’t need those bases. Who, after all, is going to try to invade them? In the last thousand years, only the Americans have invaded Japan successfully.
As we have seen in my last article, the Japanese buy American weapons, It doesn’t matter that these weapons do not really suit Japanese defense needs: they know they will never have to use them. In any case, their defense spending is under one percent of GDP — about half that, in percentage terms, of Canada. When they buy from the Americans, they are also often buying them off — at the same time, buying up what is left of American industry, mostly in the all-important entertainment media area and borrowing technology in a way that the Chinese can only envy. Their investments in media have an ulterior motive: they allow the Japanese to promote a ‘narrative” of Japan as a unique and exotic culture, intrinsically resistant to change, which allows Japan’s government to say to the Americans, “So sorry but we can’t do that, our people are…well…Japanese”. On occasion, they must pretend to be recalcitrant children.
The Japanese play the angles — for example, when they American vaccines, rather than the much cheaper and equally effective Russian vaccines, its because they their Big Pharma wants the technology.
It is true that Japan has the world’s fourth or fifth largest military — but it is different from any other since it is under strict civilian control. The members of the SDF do not wear their uniforms in public, do not parade in public, or show the flag as the militaries of other countries do. As I said in Part I of this series, the real uniform of Japan is the grey suit, the white shirt and tie — business attire. And no one ever says, “thank you for your service” to an SDF member because they are never in harm’s way. In a country prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and the like, the SDF serves vital functions in terms of community service.
Japan Sucks Up
Shinzo Abe has offered to Japanese personnel to use in peacekeeping operations, just as lot of countries do. The “Quad” — the alliance of Japan, US, Australia and India — was set up to contest Chinese claims in the South China Sea and support Taiwanese autonomy. But India is not in the least interested in the South China sea. Australia really needs Chinese money. Japan will do as little as it can.
The countries which are actually disputing Chinese claims — such as the Philippines, Vietnam and so on — really don’t want American — or Japanese — ships — in the area. And Taiwan claims more islands than China does. For the Japanese, therefore, the Quad is the international equivalent of a golf club.
Japan uses its territorial disputes with China to demonstrate its support for American policies — while pretty much ignoring Russia, with which it is still technically at war, and with whom it also has territorial disputes — not to mention, downplaying its dispute with American ally South Korea over Dokto Island. .
“They want to take the Senkakus from us!”, the Japanese cry to the Americans, who had actually signed off on giving those islands to the Taiwan — which they had later recognized as part of China. The Younger Brother asking the Big Brother for help against a bully, who is actually not a bully at all.
The Senkakus are a straw horse, and also play to homegrown Japanese anti-Chinese racism, given that Chinese figure skaters are not tall, long legged and blue eyed like the Russians. And President Xi is not a muscular Judoka like Putin.
One cannot disregard, the Japanese sense of uniqueness — Japan’s homegrown exceptionalism — Japanese-ism — which is not so much “nationalist” as racist or classist — and rooted in the deep sense of inferiority that the Japanese samurai class felt when Admiral Perry’s black ships arrived with blonde, blue eyed sailors ten centimeters taller than them.
Even today, manga likes to show Japanese with blue eyes.
Thanks to Pixy.org. Creative Commons.
With the Meiji Restoration, Americans — and other white people, were quasi -senpai and Japanese quasi kohai. When the Japanese went to war against the Chinese in 1895, they behaved with extreme brutality, slaughtering men, women and children. The Russo-Japanese war ten years later was different. Russian POWs were treated with extreme civility. As I have written before, Putin calendars outsell those starring Japanese celebrities in Japan. And Russian figure skaters are media stars. It is a physical thing.
For example, I am Canadian. White(ish). Blue eyes. So, I am called a “gaijin” a short form of “gaikokujin” or “foreigner”. But gaijin only applies to non-Asian people, usually Westerners. Including black Americans. Asians and often other non-whites who do not appear to be “western” are usually referred to by their nationalities.
Japan’s defeat in WWII proved the superiority of “Westerners” in no uncertain terms: it was the Americans and the Russians who defeated the Japanese, not the Chinese. And in 1945, those blonde, blue eyed giants were everywhere.
But things change. The Japanese used to look down on the Koreans. Then the Koreans took part of their global car market and a lot of the electronics market. Korean TV became popular in Japan. Today, the media control perception.
As China grows, a new generation of Japanese will look to China, not the US.
The Future
As I have said, the Japanese are situationalists. Their much vaunted “traditions” and “cultural values” are subject to change depending on the wind. And now the wind is blowing from China and Russia.
Japan is still beholden to the Americans and to a lesser extent, Europe. But Eurasia — China and Russia are clearly the future a discrete market of two billion people, which, with digital currencies, will be less effected by a collapse of the American economic system, as a consequence of intrinsic inefficiencies, inequality, geriatric infrastructure, and the end of dollar dominance.
The Russians are particularly important. Not only are they net agricultural exporters, they have huge resources next door in the Russian East . They are also developing pan-Asian transportation systems, along with the Chinese, the projected rail links in the Korean peninsula. And with melting ice, Japan will increasing find ship transport through Russian arctic waters convenient. President Putin’s notion of a “multipolar” world benefits countries like Japan and Russia can mediate with the Chinese and Koreans so Japan can be the Eastern terminus for a Eurasian economic juggernaut.
Before that, you’ll have to wait for the US of A to go the way of the USSR.
