Badtz_Proper comments

This is definitely to be expected, Japan has done an excellent job in promoting its culture overseas and it will pay off in the future.

The death penalty is abhorrent and ineffective and should be banned immediately. It is a national disgrace that Japan maintains this horrific practice, and a great shame that it is almost never a matter of debate amongst Japanese people ("shoganai" prevails, alas). Presented with the facts and rational, reasoned arguments I think most people would realise that abolition is the only decent way forward. All power to AI in its fight against capital punishment

If 80% of the Japanese public support the death penalty then who the hell are they to jam their values down the throats of a supportive population. I dont want to start an argument about why or why not we should have the death penalty, I just dont much care for Amnesty International.

What is happening to the Ainu has already happened to my peeps. Do you really think we can some day accept one another and live peacefully? Or is that all just a pipe dream? Are we ultimately much too aggressive for such cooperation? The people of the earth are all one people. Will there be a day when we realize the truth of that?

Yeah the day Buddhism becomes the worlds dominant religion, but until that day comes yes it is a pipe dream apparently.

And thank you for being less of a dick than I was ;)

Internet arguments get nasty sometimes :D

First of all most the modern Japan we see today is mainly do to the reset button which took place after WWII. After the Americans came in, they were leap frogged into the industrial age. A chain reaction that echoed to all the other countries they touched during their campaign. (Korea, China. Phillipines etc.)

The reason why they are leaders in technology is because their culture are so open to embracing such things. Countries where it is not as important focus on other priorities. It has nothing to do with a homogenous culture but economics. (Supply&Demand, allocation of resources)Maybe if America did the same to Brazil and later rebuilt it then your gaming consoles would be coming from country known for sexy women with nice butts.

Another example: I worked for Olympus R&D department a few years ago. Fields like engineering and science are not popular professions in Japan. Most of the research on all this technology Japan creates which you contribute to a homogenous society, largely comes from foreigners working there. The head of the projects are usually Japanese for obvious reasons. But the breakthroughs were usually created by foreigners who were contracted for research. It was also indicative of another company I worked for that was a subsidiary of Fujitsu. That is the advantage of diversity. New ideas and ways to solve problems to provide the best demand gaming system in the world.

Like someone else said Japan is good about sweeping secrets under the rug.

Sounds like the system you just described to me works pretty well, its a way of embracing the benefits of diversity without an exploding foreign population. Japan seems to be doing well without importing labor from the third world. Bring in engineers from all over the world to help you develop robots to fill the labor gap without importing cheap factory workers from all over the world, sounds like a good plan.

As for the Ainu, I still feel they should promote their culture as part of Japan, not separate from it.

Badtz Proper, you need to stop smoking that bud...your ideals are lacking.

Its not a bud its a cigar and see no lacking ideals my friend.

Creating a more level playing field between communities is what civilized countries are supposed to do, so others around the world can follow by example and understand the great advantages of diversity in a culture.

Advantages such as? Explain to me these advantages, please, and compare and contrast to a mostly homogeneous society? While your telling me this Japan is busy supplementing its declining birthrate with robots, selling top quality products, and entertaining the world with its animation industry. Brazil is extremely diverse..why isn't it dominating the world? I dont see any game consoles coming out of Colombia or Egypt. Level playing field? By undermining the native population and by giving hand outs to to a growing impoverished minority population who mostly has no desire to assimilate only dominate? Sounds like a fun game.

No, we're not. The difference being that there's no need to "defend" our culture. Our culture is the dominant one. When you "defend" something that doesn't need defending, it reads as a superiority trip. Sorry, that's the price of being the majority. Fair? Maybe not. Too bad.

Actually in some countries where immigration is so out of control that the once native population that made that country what it is will soon be pushed to 50% of the population and eventually minority status will we be free to celebrate our heritage then? Maybe by the time the English are a minority in Britain it will be okay to celebrate our culture at that point according to your logic instead of remaining the dominant ethnic group in the nation in which that people originated and built. The Ainu are just as Japanese as the rest and their culture should be promoted but they should also focus on unifying themselves with the rest of the population.

Nobody calls anyone racist or ignorant if Germans celebrate German culture in America, or if Irish celebrate their culture in Australia. That's pride. "White" culture is a hodge podge of vastly different European cultures, and is far too generic a term to take seriously. It also has a long, unambiguous history of being used as little more than a superiority trip and a power grab, usually with profoundly racist overtones and actions.

As soon as I mention white I get attacked, imagine that. You sure are the hero of this thread aren't you? I agree with you on that, but white is a term I used to describe Europeans, if I were to say French or British would that have been better?

Solidarity is something totally different. Solidarity is something that is necessary under duress, but if you're in charge and start talking about "solidarity" and "defending" a culture that's on top, people get (quite rightly) nervous. The dictionary definition of solidarity does not have superior overtones, but if you think the common usage doesn't you're delusional. 99% of people will read racism into the phrase "white solidarity," and they have extremely good reasons for doing so. You really should know this already.

When the majority native population sees its culture being undermined by a quickly growing minority and sees minority status in its future isn't it understandable that they would feel increasingly nervous too? Thats the consequence of mass immigration. Fair? Maybe not. Too bad. Once again excuse me for using the words "white" and "solidarity" in the same sentence. I was being a bit insensitive.

When people in charge start complaining that they don't get enough respect, history has shown that bad, bad, BAD things happen. CELEBRATING a dominant way of life is, and always has been, just fine. Do people get cranky over celebrating the 4th of July, Easter, The Super Bowl? No. You do get a few people who are upset about Christmas, but they're very few and far between, and the criticism tends to be focused on Christian demands to control the situation beyond what they're entitled to expect.

completely agreed.

Let's say you have 10 people. If 2 of them decide to see a movie and don't invite the other 8 along, who cares? But if 9 of them decide to exclude one for whatever reason, that's discrimination. Sorry, but that's what the word means. Now, that discrimination may have a good basis (i.e. the one guy doesn't behave himself, etc.) Not all discrimination is bad.

Very true, well done

But saying "we're going because it's a white guy thing," well...what's left for the one? Sorry guys, if you're in charge, you do have an ethical responsibility to make sure people different than you aren't bounced out of life due to things beyond their control. It's called "society," and what's right is not always fair to the most technical degree.

Wow, I'm starting to agree more and more. My input here is that people can control such things as whether they should assimilate into the mainstream enough so they dont find themselves isolated and conflictive with others. A different racial group has the ability to assimilate into the mainstream but may choose not to because they do not want to abandon their culture, but cultures conflict as we have seen over the past few decades and its either assimilate or separate its hard to find a happy medium. The day we do will be the day multiculturalism functions without the side affects.

"Defending" a way of life that is not under credible threat is NOT about pride, it's about control. Nobody's calling the Japanese racist just because they celebrate Obon, and nobody calls the Irish racist because they celebrate St. Patrick's.

Agreed. But who decides when the threat is credible? I enjoyed responding to this you really changed my views a bit.

This article really changed my view of what makes someone Japanese. The only problem I have with it is that instead of highlighting differences maybe they should focus on what makes them all Japanese, whether they are of Brazilian-Japanese, Korean, or Ainu they should focus on what makes them similar. A little unity and conformity is not all bad. In this day and age we get so wrapped up in individuality and multiculturalism we forget that unity and homogeneity also has its strengths because humans are social creatures and we all need to benefit the whole.

In June, Japan’s parliament recognized the Ainu as an indigenous people with a distinct religion, language and culture, a major shift from the mid-1980s when Yasuhiro Nakasone, the then prime minister, declared that Japan was a homogenous nation with no minorities.

Now that depends on what your definition of homogeneous is. If you want to get all scientific and nitpick the genetic makeup of a population of coarse your gonna find it isn't that homogeneous, but if you look at the similarities such as culture and language and history and appearance even maybe you'll find that Japan is very homogeneous and unified as compared to other nations. I dont see the appeal of this rampant individuality "all about me" idea that has swept the planet these past decades but were going to see the consequences when we realize we have nothing to agree on and our cultures have been diluted and fragmented.

“Some people say, ‘You can have an identity as Ainu, but we Japanese don’t know what we can be proud of,’” Sakai said.

Exactly, its okay for a minority to be proud of who they are and to wish to remain united and to live amongst their own kind, but Japanese or whites are racist or ignorant if we want to defend our culture and solidarity.

Of course, the boredom and lack of diversity factor also approaches 100%.

Sorry my race bores you. You are right though, the lack of racial conflict can be boring. Its good to find the demographic that entertains you. I mean, you must be bored as hell over there in Japan despite all the technological advances and great television, but hey, thier all Japanese so thier all boring right?

I doubt this will happen. The writers found an article on how the Government wants to extend visas from 2 to 5 years. So?

I'm frustrated with how people do not realize how illogical mass immigration is, it never works. Where has it worked without racial conflict and became as peaceful as Japan without the media and government forcing "tolerance" and "political correctness" on its people to silence natural human tendencies? Have you noticed in America how its okay to be proud to be black and Hispanic, but racist to be proud to be white? Thats not equality so dont tell us it works in America. Japan has a falling birthrate, if immigrants are allowed in will the birthrate rise among natives? No. The birthrate will stay low and foreigners will take up more and more of the population...it makes sense right? If you support multiculturalism so much explain the rising far right in Europe, terrorist attacks and riots in France. Unbelievable. Its a nice idea, but homogeneity works best unquestionably. Japan can find other safer means while robotics technology advances. Even if Japan allows foreigners in, robots will replace them later on anyway, leading to unemployment.