Ishihara Shintaro’s government acts like the Gestapo in monitoring teacher-student patriotism. Of course, this also reflects neo-nationalist thinking in the Education Ministry. Although the mainstream liberal media reports on this, it does so inconsistently and without drawing a connection between this issue and others affecting diplomacy, such as the Yasukuni visits. Like China and its own authoritarian policies, Japan tends more and more to treat these as domestic issues when encountering foreign criticism, but it actually refuses to address the many people in Japan who oppose its neo-nationalist policies. The media–both liberal and rightist–is largely complicit in this deception.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.