{"id":16849,"date":"2021-10-18T08:50:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16849"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:52:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:52:52","slug":"my-sna-vm27-the-bright-side-of-japans-culture-of-no-surprise-debito-has-something-positive-to-say-about-japan-oct-18-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16849","title":{"rendered":"My SNA VM27: “The Bright Side of Japan’s ‘Culture of No’.” Surprise! Debito has something positive to say about Japan. Oct 18, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0As I am swamped with preparations for the release of my next book, here is a human-interest essay on Japan where, surprise!, I say something positive about what I learned from Japan about how to cope with the adversity of the global pandemic. \u00a0Enjoy. \u00a0Arudou Debito, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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

Visible Minorities 27: The Bright Side of Japan’s “Culture of No”<\/strong>
\nSurprise! Debito has something positive to say about Japan.<\/strong>
\nShingetsu News Agency, October 18, 2021<\/strong>
\nBy Debito Arudou<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2021\/10\/18\/visible-minorities-the-bright-side-of-japans-culture-of-no\/<\/a><\/p>\n

SNA (Tokyo) — As the pandemic stretches into yet another season, the media is starting to assess how Covid is changing the world permanently. At least one pundit has called the situation \u201cepochal,\u201d with the ever-rising worldwide death toll causing disruptions to politics, government, economics, and social life in general. It\u2019s no longer a matter of just getting everyone vaccinated and then everything going back to normal: for the foreseeable future, we\u2019ll have to accept some form of deprivation as the new normal.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some countries are coping with deprivation (or at least a deferred gratification) less well. The United States is a good example. Despite being one of the most advanced economies and developed civil societies in the world, it has botched the pandemic badly–and it is not only because the previous president was willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people to maintain his power. It\u2019s also because of a design flaw deeply embedded in America’s national psyche.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

American society is oddly susceptible to charismatic frauds posing as leaders, inept at everything except the uncanny talent of playing off social expectations framed as \u201cfreedoms\u201d: 1) \u201cfreedom from want\u201d (i.e., in a land of plenty, you should be able to get whatever you want); and 2) \u201cfreedom from being told what to do by government\u201d (better known as \u201cliberty,\u201d where, as long as it\u2019s not specifically illegal, you should be able to do whatever you want).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider how Covid has devastated American expectations. In terms of want, supply chains worldwide have broken down, meaning Americans have had to defer consumer gratification in places where it hurts, from toilet paper to used cars to sudden exorbitant rents. In terms of government nonintervention, the audacity of a national vaccine mandate demanding people get a Covid shot is being denounced as \u201ctyranny.\u201d Not all societies have reacted like this…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is where Japan comes in.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At a time of historic stressors around the globe, I realized that my decades living in Japan have come in handy. In fact, Japan has been an excellent training ground for deprivation and deferred gratification. They seem to lack the ability to keep things in perspective, particularly the one I gained from living under Japan\u2019s \u201cCulture of No.\u201d…<\/em><\/strong>
\n=============================<\/p>\n

Read the rest before it goes behind paywall at https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2021\/10\/18\/visible-minorities-the-bright-side-of-japans-culture-of-no\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Or read it anytime by subscribing to SNA and supporting your local progressive journalism for about a dollar a week!<\/p>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SNA: As the pandemic stretches into yet another season, the media is starting to assess how Covid is changing the world permanently. At least one pundit has called the situation \u201cepochal,\u201d with the ever-rising worldwide death toll causing disruptions to politics, government, economics, and social life in general. It\u2019s no longer a matter of just getting everyone vaccinated and then everything going back to normal: for the foreseeable future, we\u2019ll have to accept some form of deprivation as the new normal.<\/p>\n

Some countries are coping with deprivation (or at least a deferred gratification) less well. The United States is a good example. Despite being one of the most advanced economies and developed civil societies in the world, it has botched the pandemic badly–and it is not only because the previous president was willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people to maintain his power. It\u2019s also because of a design flaw deeply embedded in America’s national psyche.<\/p>\n

American society is oddly susceptible to charismatic frauds posing as leaders, inept at everything except the uncanny talent of playing off social expectations framed as \u201cfreedoms\u201d: 1) \u201cfreedom from want\u201d (i.e., in a land of plenty, you should be able to get whatever you want); and 2) \u201cfreedom from being told what to do by government\u201d (better known as \u201cliberty,\u201d where, as long as it\u2019s not specifically illegal, you should be able to do whatever you want).<\/p>\n

Consider how Covid has devastated American expectations. In terms of want, supply chains worldwide have broken down, meaning Americans have had to defer consumer gratification in places where it hurts, from toilet paper to used cars to sudden exorbitant rents. In terms of government nonintervention, the audacity of a national vaccine mandate demanding people get a Covid shot is being denounced as \u201ctyranny.\u201d Not all societies have reacted like this…<\/p>\n

This is where Japan comes in. At a time of historic stressors around the globe, I realized that my decades living in Japan have come in handy. In fact, Japan has been an excellent training ground for deprivation and deferred gratification. They seem to lack the ability to keep things in perspective, particularly the one I gained from living under Japan\u2019s \u201cCulture of No.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the rest at https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2021\/10\/18\/visible-minorities-the-bright-side-of-japans-culture-of-no\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,22,12,31,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-cultural-issue","category-immigration-assimilation","category-tangents","category-what-i-learned-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16849","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=16849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16855,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16849\/revisions\/16855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}