Opinion Two steps forward, one step back By Joseph LaPenta	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
2歩前進、1歩後退 文部科学省で教育基本法の見直しが進められている。若者の愛国心にもっと重点が 置かれることになりそうな風向きだが…。

Japanese government officials are worried about young people. What are they doing about the stalled economy, rising unemployment and record-breaking corporate, political and bureaucratic corruption? Not much. But politicians and bureaucrats want young people to be more patriotic, more ethical, they want them to cherish family values and have more respect for tradition. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

The worried officials belong to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. They should give some thought to shortening their ministry's name. Perhaps M.E.S.S. would be better.

However, what they want to do is revise the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education, which stressed individualism, decentralization of education and peace. It replaced prewar edicts like the Imperial Rescript on Education (1890) that advised Japanese to practice filial piety (now called family values),be loyal to the emperor (now hidden in respect for tradition) and offer themselves courageously to the State (now known as patriotism).

So who are all these unpatriotic young Japanese?

Are the Self-Defense Forces having trouble finding recruits? Not really. Is there any shortage of flag-waving Japanese at the Olympics or the World Cup Games? Hardly.

Maybe they are referring to athletes like Hideo Nomo and Hidetoshi Nakata. At the time they left to play abroad, the press and others attacked them for being selfish, greedy and unpatriotic.

But nothing succeeds like success. Nomo and Nakata have joined a host of other athletes, artists, NGO workers and business people. They have served their country wonderfully by leaving it. They have put attractive, energetic human faces on Japan's international image. Sony and Toyota make great products, but almost no individual Japanese person, with the possible exception of Yoko Ono, has been as widely known abroad.

They may be the exceptions. Who are the ordinary unpatriotic young Japanese? Are they the ones who don't have racially correct black hair? Maybe young Japanese men with blond hair and earrings won't make good soldiers. Perhaps the folks at M.E.S.S. have been too busy reading their own censored history texts. They may have missed the part where patriotism caused the deaths of tens of millions of people last century.

And who are the ordinary Japanese with no respect for family values and traditions?

Are they the "selfish" young women who sue their companies over sexual discrimination? Or the ones who refuse to have lots of babies, or put up with abusive marriages, or silently endure sexual harassment?

The revised law really represents the principle of "two steps forward, one step back." Japanese young people are suffering from too much Western-style freedom and individualism, and they have to be cured.

I must admit that sometimes I agree with M.E.S.S. A couple of years ago, at nation-wide ceremonies on Coming-of-Age Day, there were young people in the audience who were smoking, getting drunk and shouting. But it's hard to criticize them too much. After all, for these former kids, it was their first chance to act like adults.

Shukan ST: Jan. 3, 2003

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