{"id":13509,"date":"2015-09-05T07:35:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T17:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13509"},"modified":"2015-10-01T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T23:00:10","slug":"my-next-japan-times-jbc-col-91-sept-7-2015-why-japans-right-keeps-leaving-the-left-in-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13509","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JBC 91 Sept 7, 2015: Why Japan’s Right keeps leaving the Left in the dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

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JUST BE CAUSE
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\nWhy Japan\u2019s Right keeps leaving the Left in the dust<\/strong>
\n By Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/strong>
\nJBC column 91 for the Japan Times Community Page<\/strong>
\n September 7, 2015<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2015\/09\/06\/issues\/japans-right-keeps-leaving-left-dust\/<\/a><\/p>\n

JBC has talked about Japan\u2019s right-wing swing before. The news is, it\u2019s swung so far that Japan\u2019s left is finally getting its act together.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, over the past year historians inside and outside Japan joined retired politicians to demand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accurately portray Japan\u2019s role in World War II during the 70th Anniversary commemorations last month. It didn\u2019t work<\/a>, but nice try.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Or how about the decimated Democratic Party of Japan submitting a bill to the Diet that would ban racial discrimination (yes!), hate speech and related harassment? Sadly, the bill has no hope of passing, or of being enforceable even if it does (what with loopholes for \u201cjustifiable discrimination\u201d and no criminal penalties<\/a>). But, again, nice try.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And we are seeing outdoor protest after protest, with ranks swelling to numbers not seen in decades.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s all fine \u2014 and about time, given that people repeatedly reelected these rightists in the first place. But let\u2019s discuss why Japan\u2019s left has basically always been out of power (leaving aside the geopolitical pressures from Japan\u2019s sugar-daddy busybody \u2014 see \u201cU.S. green lights Japan\u2019s march back to militarism,\u201d Just Be Cause, June 1<\/a>). <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The left keeps losing, and much of it is their own damned fault.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As an activist in Japan, I worked with the left (as in the self-proclaimed center-leftists, socialists and communists) and dealt with its right (the center-rightists, conservatives, populists and nationalists) for decades.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I advocate for minority rights here, I am simpatico with the left, given their comparative tendency to view people as individuals \u2014 as opposed to the right\u2019s reflex of seeing people as groups that are ascribed characteristics from birth.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, both sides have belief systems you must subscribe to for membership. (That\u2019s precisely what a political camp is.) Both tell stories and maintain narratives to garner public appeal. And, naturally, their organizations are clubby and cliquey. Worse, in Japan, while membership might be instant, acceptance into leadership roles often takes many years (in case you are a spy or a subversive).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the right has distinct advantages that the left should be aware of, if it wants to have any hope of playing the game better.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One advantage is simplicity of goals. Basically, the rightists (as conservatives) want things left the way they are \u2014 or apparently were. The left wants change, which means it has to argue harder for it. On the other hand, the right can simply invoke the almighty power of precedent.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This sets off a vicious circle. Japan is a land that craves precedent, yet the left has little leadership precedent to cite. They can never argue that Japan has been a socialist state (even though in many areas it is exactly that), and few dare display communist sympathies (even though Japan\u2019s appeal to historical collectivism would fit right into any commune).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPrecedentophilia\u201d also avails the right of a scare tactic: They can argue that the left would force Japan to chart unknown territory. Rightists, on the other hand, are merely citing the tried and true: \u201cHey, the system worked for our ancestors in the past, right?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And there the debate usually dies. Whenever Japan harks to the past, an element of ancestor worship seeps in. This stifles critical thinking, for insinuating that our forefathers were somehow wrong is to disrespectfully question the essence of Japanese identity. You see that even with WWII war criminals \u2014 who would have led Japan into oblivion if they had continued to get their way \u2014 enshrined as heroes at public worship sites and in popular culture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the leftist ideological distaste for measuring everything in terms of money. That\u2019s a fatal error in politics. Rightists have no trouble whatsoever doing so, since they have a lot more of it. And with money, of course, comes power \u2014 and the rightists have no trouble with that either. In their inherited world, being rich and powerful for generations has normalized their entitlement to the point where they claim it without shame or self-consciousness.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the biggest disadvantage I see in Japan\u2019s left is an intellectual snobbery.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

First, if you want to join their ranks, you must prove your ideological worth. I remember numerous times asking for assistance from leftist groups in the quest for equal rights for all. We were on the same page, yet their Young Turks grilled me about whether I had read this author or that book. Essentially, I had to pass an entrance exam \u2014 be demonstrably schooled in their canon and their lexicon \u2014 or else I would get no support.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the problem with narrative: Japanese leftists are oddly lazy about honing their talking points. Why? Because their ideals were handed to them in the postwar \u201cpeace Constitution.\u201d Since then they have basically rested on their (un-won) laurels.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This became painfully obvious during the current debate on Japan\u2019s remilitarization. Because Article 9 had been hitherto sacrosanct, the left didn\u2019t think they had to talk about war anymore. It was simply inconceivable that Japan would ever fight one again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The right, however, knew that undermining what leftists have taken for granted would be a multigenerational fight. And over time it got good at it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rightist victories have been gradual but significant, as seen in the policy creep of doublespeak \u2014 from the \u201cSelf-Defense Forces\u201d all the way to today\u2019s \u201ccollective self-defense.\u201d The left just bleated that this was unconstitutional, without crafting a clearer narrative about the horror and excesses of war to capture the popular imagination. More effective were rightist scares about security threats from the Soviet Union, China and North Korea.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With any multigenerational battle comes the grooming of young successors, and at this the right excels.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite being blue-bloods clinging to the class structure, rightists have been peerless when it comes to appealing to those outside their class, particularly Japan\u2019s young. (Why do you think they suddenly decided to lower the voting age from 20 to 18?)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rightists intuitively understand that if something is to be a talking point, you have to put it in manga or anime form. Then you\u2019ll reach even the most disaffected shut-in (who will then go online to terrorize a newfound foe).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In comparison, leftists look more like doctrinaire fossils, sniffing at all this anti-intellectualism: \u201cWho needs to tell lowbrow stories when we have abstract principles to adhere to?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the right knows it needs as many people as possible parroting its talking points \u2014 for a fundamental maxim of propaganda is that if enough people say something, it becomes true.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why rightists lower their standards for admission. They take just about anyone as long as they parrot. Even their xenophobes will enlist foreigners! Take a broke retired journalist, a redneck Net ignoramus or a paramilitary spook for hire, and just put their names on inflammatory Japanese publications in a language they can\u2019t read anyway. Plus, ferreting out foreign parrots makes the right\u2019s talking points seem more worldly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In essence, the rightists keep their eyes on the prize: money and power. In the game of politics, that gives you the advantage every time. And when you\u2019re wielding patronage and privilege for this long, you get good at doling it out to the underprivileged, like soup at the breadlines.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The leftists? Well, hey, they can\u2019t even talk to one another, let alone band together against this dynamic. Intellectual schisms are historically toxic, to the point of factions killing one other (think Kakumaru-ha vs. Chukaku-ha in the 1970s). Of course, the rightists aren\u2019t all friends either, but at least they can be odd bedfellows following a narrative under the same religion \u2014 Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And therein lies the ultimate power in this game: nationalism. It\u2019s easiest to appeal to people by resorting to patriotism. Again, it blunts critical thinking. (Even Western media handle Japan\u2019s most bigoted rightists with kid gloves, labeling them \u201cnationalists,\u201d \u201cconservatives,\u201d even \u201cpatriots\u201d!)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is all much easier than using slogans about impalpable \u201cequality,\u201d \u201cdemocracy\u201d and \u201cpeace.\u201d After all, money and privilege offer tangible and immediate benefits, whereas peace is a public good you only appreciate when it\u2019s gone. And few now remember it being gone. Like it or not, the simpler narrative sells.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If Japan\u2019s left is ever to aspire to power, it must, ironically, learn to be more open-minded, cooperative and co-optive. It must learn how to get out there, welcome new blood and convince people with a compelling story of alternatives (rather than just sit back and wait for the enlightenment of the masses, followed by an ideological litmus test). Otherwise, Japan\u2019s left will keep on losing to the right on a past-revering, precedent-based playing field naturally slanted against them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leftists: Stop only learning how to argue. Learn how to appeal. Learn narrative.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

====================================<\/p>\n

Debito Arudou\u2019s next book, \u201cEmbedded Racism: Japan\u2019s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination,\u201d will be out in November. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears in print on the first Monday Community Page of the month. Your comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp
\nENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preview: JBC has talked about Japan\u2019s right-wing swing before. The news is, it\u2019s swung so far that Japan\u2019s left is finally getting its act together.<\/p>\n

For example, over the past year historians inside and outside Japan joined retired politicians to demand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accurately portray Japan\u2019s role in World War II during the 70th Anniversary commemorations last month. It didn\u2019t work, but nice try.<\/p>\n

Or how about the decimated Democratic Party of Japan submitting a bill to the Diet that would ban racial discrimination (yes!), hate speech and related harassment? Sadly, the bill has no hope of passing, or of being enforceable even if it does (what with loopholes for \u201cjustifiable discrimination\u201d and no criminal penalties). But, again, nice try.<\/p>\n

And we are seeing outdoor protest after protest, with ranks swelling to numbers not seen in decades.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all fine \u2014 and about time, given that people repeatedly reelected these rightists in the first place. But let\u2019s discuss why Japan\u2019s left has basically always been out of power (leaving aside the geopolitical pressures from Japan\u2019s sugar-daddy busybody \u2014 see \u201cU.S. green lights Japan\u2019s march back to militarism,\u201d Just Be Cause, June 1). The left keeps losing, and much of it is their own damned fault…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,22,34,26,14,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-cultural-issue","category-exclusionism","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-politics","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}