I met several different people during my life in Japan- in both business and academic environments - who very openly said the role of foreigners is to say all the things Japanese cannot say since
they are bound to the rule of "harmony above all".

There are indeed Japanese who do this. I have been asked to do it. Some years ago I was asked by an official of what was then the Monbusho to write a criticism of certain aspects of Japanese education which the Monbusho would then translate and publish in Japanese.

I immediately suspected that I was being asked to provide gaiatsu for something the Monbusho already planned to do. I said so. The official sheepishly admitted that was the case. I refused to write the article although I could have used the money.

I have criticized this all too common pattern and scrupulously avoided it during my 18 years as a tenured professor in a Japanese private university. It is part of a broader pattern of claiming the grass is greener in the US, Europe, the West, or wherever. I have criticized this habit in both English and Japanese articles and in my public lectures in Japanese at Reitaku University.

http://japan-forward.com/mythbusters-vaccinating-against-fake-news/

This style of pushing a "reform" agenda has several pernicious side effects. It leads the foreign nationals so used to have an inflated sense of their own brilliance and importance. It contributes to a racist perception of the Japanese as incapable of coming up with reform ideas on their own and needing the guidance of more advanced, virtually all white, foreigners.

A few months ago I looked to see whether there were European equivalents to books such as "Can the Japanese Change Their Education System?" which is one of a number of such works in English. I could find no equivalents for any European.

This is not because no European country has made any significant changes to its basic education system in the last 20-30 years. Some have made major changes but they apparently did so without the sage advice of foreign Anglophone academics.

The very idea of Anglophone academics telling the French how they should reform their education system is a non-starter. But, telling the Japanese how to run their educational system seems to be regarded as both a right and duty for foreign Japan specialists.

Whether this is racism (white people don't tell other white people how to run their countries) or paternalism (the Japanese are a nation of twelve-year-olds) is hard to decide. It is probably both.

In any event, I find it abhorrent whether it is initiated by the Japanese or by foreigners.

Careful Japanese examination of foreign models can be useful. The long term care insurance scheme in Japan is a stellar example of that but this involved Japanese making careful on the ground studies of care schemes in a number of foreign countries. Listening to foreign nationals blow off about what was wrong in Japan was not part of this.

Japan was so successful that Korea and Taiwan followed Japan and the Japanese model has been offered as something worthy of study by Britain.

http://japan-forward.com/all-eyes-on-japans-long-term-health-care-innovations/

http://japan-forward.com/its-time-to-recognize-japans-leadership-in-long-term-health-care/

I also know of a case where the very well-founded advice a foreign political scientist helped to head off a singularly dumb electoral reform.

But, these are cases of Japanese seeking out reform from experts and practitioners, not opinionated gaijin blowing off in an English language mailing list with little Japanese participation.

I wonder how many of those thinking they know what is good for Japan and the Japanese would try to tell the Brits, Germans, French, Italians, Koreans, or for that matter the Chinese, how to run their education systems.

For those who are long term residents, I would suggest that if you really believe you have something to say about Japanese education or Japanese policy at large

(1) Write in Japanese.

(2) Naturalize. It's relatively easy. I did it without hired legal help. There are no fees for the application.

(3) Vote.

(4) Run for public office. Several of the opposition parties welcome naturalized Japanese. Even if you don't get elected, a foreign face will get more attention than a generic native Japanese.

EHK