Japanese Politics

I was talking with one of my former professors yesterday and discussing a bit about the earthquake in Japan since I was a bit worried if his family was all right. We talked about the radiation scare that is occurring right now and how it has been reported that more agricultural products are being tainted. There is no escaping from the radiation since the island is their only true home even if they all moved south to try and avoid it.

I brought up the subject of the Japanese government and how they handling the situation, which I thought that, the people are losing faith in their own government. But he told me that the Japanese people have already lost trust in the government since WWII. Before the war, the emperor was known as the Son of Heaven (tenshi), which he represented God and he knew what fate lies with the people. During the war, he told them that they will come out victorious and many had pride for their emperor. But the result of the war with many casualties over the island had shed bad light over the emperor and many people lost faith in the right winged government.

Even when the government was reformed and the Emperor became more of a figure head, the government tried to stay in the neutral area. They don’t want to be too right as it would remind the older generation of the Emperor’s reign years before. You would not say “I love Japan” out loud as it would mean you are a conservative and many people will give you a hateful look (probably). It is ok for the younger generations to say it because of how much society has changed since then but it is not ok for the older generation living through the war. But being neutral they don’t know what corrective action to take in handling the nuclear power plant, many dislocated people in the tsunami areas, the rise in the number of dead, lack of supplies and electricity. They can’t be seen as either too left or too right, which has created a dilemma for the politicians in terms of what kind of information can be released. According to my professor, they just recently embraced the social media before the quake had occurred and it lagging behind most countries because of the politicians who still stuck in thinking of the old ways of running the government. They could’ve used the social networks to see what people are saying and listen to their problems as well as have people find out if their friends are safe and where they are located. This serves as a wakeup call and that change is needed to bring the country back up.