| Otakumegane said: Isn't Japan like really scared of Western individualism flowing in? I mean I can understand why they would be but just curious. |
I mean, i've been there, and i still don't quite understand it. I think it's largely because the average Japanese is very politically apathetic, and the left-wing units in Japan have always been incredibly poorly organized, so a lot of the national agenda is thrust around by certified lunatics like Tokyo Governor Ishihara. The country is already westernized to an extent, but the way in which that has taken root is more in the matter of how the young people live their lives (where young people don't settle down, don't marry, don't have kids, the big problems in Japanese society, ironically), and not in how their politics works. Aside from the Ultra-Nationalists and their causes, the only thing anyone seems to get fired up about is nuclear weapons.
What Japan really needs is a new feminist revolution. From what i've read about their culture, the big problem (the lack of babies!) is due to far greater cultural pressures against working mothers, and that their family legal system gives incredible advantages to the man, so for women to remain independent or career-track in Japan now, it's much easier to either avoid marriage or, if married, avoid kids.
When their debt situation truly goes out of control sometime in the next 20 years (and it basically has to, what's propping it up is high savings rates and bond investment. When those investors retire in waves and start collecting... ouch), there will be an opportunity for large social adjustment, and then we could see the much more sensible average Japanese person awaken and become politically active again, finally marginalizing the right-wingnuts.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
