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September 30, 2019
[SSJ: 10846] Re: Climate strikes and Green politics in Japan
From: Saki Mizoroki <s.mizoroki@gmail.com>
Date: 2019/09/29
Dear Peter and all,
As a former journalist at The Asahi and BuzzFeed Japan, and current Tokyo university doctoral student of journalism who is going to embark on new international research on digital communication in Israel, let me share my two cents.
Social Media
Social media is the driving force behind recent activism ranging from #womensamrch to #climatestrike. In Japan, however, the role of social media is critically different and failed to be a catalyst for a big social movement, I think. It's rare to see a Japanese person publicly make a post/comment/tweet anything political on social media and when they do people think you are weirdo aka KY(kuuki yomenai). As many mentioned, this seems partly because of the traditional authoritarian primary education, which doesn't allow students to ask questions and speak up, or train how to have a debate. Students come to the conclusion that it's better to keep silence and become averse to expressing an opinion. (My k-12 education in Tokyo makes a stark contrast with my experience in college in Minneapolis and Berkely)
If it's true that not traditional newspapers but relatively new media such as Huffington Post and BuzzFeed that contributed to advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and you can say in general the argument is applicable to any other social causes across countries, I think kishakurabu (press club) has less to do with news reporting and shaping (young) public opinion.
Science
When you say climate change is a hoax in Japan, you'll just get scorned and ridiculed. As with the anti-vaxxer movement, science deniers cannot gain momentum in Japan. Limited real demand to fight against those deniers led to a less fueled activism? In addition, people grow up with the famous "mottainai" spirit. Also, people know Japanese companies have developed the most advanced energy-efficient technologies say it in the car industry or electronics. So, maybe they see limited cost-effectiveness in street demonstration?
Translated Language
When I translated and edited articles about #womensmarch in English to Japanese, I always faced huge difficulty to keep momentum or active voice that the original English signs and slogans contained. For example, "Solidarity!" becomes "Rentai!" but it just sounds different. "Respect Women of Color" in Japanese...hmmm. I'm no expert but I felt first hand the Japanese language is not apt for expressing strong social messages and emotions succinctly and therefore less advantageous to sharing and spreading them on social media.
On a slightly related note, I'm now writing a short summary article about middle-aged men's nasty reactions toward Greta for a Japanese magazine AERA, which is slated to appear next week.
Regards,
Saki
Saki Mizoroki
s.mizoroki@gmail.com <mailto:s.mizoroki@gmail.com>
Visiting Research Fellow | Department of Communication and Journalism | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Doctoral Student | Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies | The University of Tokyo
2019年9月29日(日) 15:55 SSJ-Forum Moderator <ssjmod@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp <mailto:ssjmod@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp>>:
From: Sakari Mesimäki <sakari.mesimaki@gmail.com
<mailto:sakari.mesimaki@gmail.com>>
Date: 2019/09/27
Dear All,
I spent the summer months in Tokyo doing field work and
interviews for
my master's thesis about how a community of young people are trying to
change what it means to talk about "politics" and "social problems". I
think my preliminary findings may provide some modest insight as to why
there is so little engagement with green politics - or politics at
all -
among at least younger Japanese.
Many of my interlocutors shared Dr. Cabell's view of the
influence of
education. Young people do not have a chance to discuss politics at
school, or at home, or anywhere else for that matter. They simply
memorize the facts of the political system.
Some interlocutors, who are taking an interest in politics and
trying
to overcome the "taboo" on talking about it, are actually finding that
they don't quite know *how* to talk about politics! What if I disagree
with my friend? How should I handle such conflict? During the summer's
upper house elections there was a considerable "let's all talk about
politics" discourse, but also an apparent difficulty to understand what
it actually means, in practice, to "talk about politics" when you have
never done so before. I myself attended a political discussion workshop
arranged during the election period where the first rule was that you
are not allowed to express support for any particular candidate or
party!
There are a host of negative associations attached to discussion or
interest in politics or social issues. It's essentially something for
"ishikitakai" and "majime" dorks. If the political activity has any
ideological or activist flavor to it, it is also considered dangerous
and disruptive - not something for good citizens to take part in.
Interlocutors also told me of apparently popularly shared
stereotypes of
the kind of person with strong political beliefs: aggressively
judgmental and incapable of cooperation.
My research focus is on a community of mostly middle-class creative
professionals who are attempting to reintegrate politics into popular
culture such as fashion and music to change the negative connotations
attached to politics into something more positive, such as "cool" and
"oshare". One example of such efforts is NEUT Magazine
(http://neutmagazine.com/) which has made this their explicit mission.
An interesting part of their brand and editorial approach is that it is
built around the idea of "neutrality". This simultaneously works to
make
politics and social problems seem less divisive and approachable, but
also sustains the virtue of avoiding confrontation and conflict which,
arguably, is partly at the root of the allergy to participating in
politics in the first place. To exaggerate slightly, the most
legitimate
and risk-free position continues to be not having any position at all.
Although environmental activism was not my specific focus, I
interviewed one of the Japanese Fridays For Future activists for a
short
article in Metropolis magazine
(https://metropolisjapan.com/fridays-for-future-tokyo/). He spoke a lot
about their struggle with negative stereotypes, and how they are trying
to get around these, such as by calling their action a "march" rather
than a "strike" and cultivating a positive, smiling public image.
I look forward to more perspectives on this very interesting topic!
Best regards,
Sakari Mesimäki
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Saki Mizoroki
Visiting Research Fellow
Department of Communication and Journalism | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Doctoral Student
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies | The University of Tokyo
Approved by ssjmod at 05:25 PM