Leah,
I pretty much agree with everything you said. There is precious little understanding here about Japan’s environmental impact particularly in regards to over fishing. Most Japanese can tell you about many other country’s horrible environmental practices, especially when it comes to China and North Korea, but are woefully ignorant of their own. I would wager that there is not another G7 country with a population so uninformed about their own country’s, historical or current, wrong doings. It is generally thought here that the American public moves in lockstep with the wishes of the government. However in America there is clear and open dissent with the government on many, many important issues (which is great, keep it up) not so in here in Japan. I know many people here who disagree with the government about whaling and other things but there are no outlets for dissent. The media almost completely ignores anything but the official government line. This Wikipedia article explains
Honne and Tatemae, it doesn’t do a great job, but it may help explain why Japanese don’t/can’t stand up to people in power. An often used saying in Japan is "The nail that sticks up, gets hammered down". A really good book is
A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. It partly explains Japanese ignorance of their own country, and the outside world. Even in China the people know how controlled their media is, but in Japan most don’t. You often hear the plaintive cry here of “Why can’t the rest of the world understand us?”, when in reality it is actually Japan that fails to understand the rest of the world.
Oh yeah,
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Originally Posted by Leah
those Japs
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please don't!
“Jap” is generally considered a racial slur!