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Louis, I would very much like to have a copy of the Harper´s Magazine article. Thanks/Håkan 2017-05-22 20:24 GMT+02:00 Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > (From a Harper's magazine article behind a paywall. Contact me if you'd > like a copy.) > > Yet not even Japanese excellence could insulate the country from economic > disaster. In 1990, the stock and real-estate markets collapsed. Desperation > and bitterness gave way to a proliferation of angry nationalist rallies, > which have continued to the present day. Protesters took to gathering in > the streets and harassing ethnic minorities, whom they accuse of taking > away their jobs. Koichi Nakano, a political scientist who studies these > groups at Sophia University, in Tokyo, told me, “These are basically > spontaneous, rather fluid networks of haters.” Most are working-age men who > have never managed to find secure employment; Nakano said that 37 percent > of Japanese workers today have sporadic, temporary positions. > > When I was in Tokyo, not long ago, on any given day I would see dozens of > people carrying Japanese flags and shouting vague, violent threats in > minority neighborhoods or outside foreign embassies. Nakano estimates that > there are more than a hundred nationalist groups that convene across the > country. They are not on the fringe: A leader of the group Zaitokukai, > which has called for a large-scale massacre of Korean residents, has been > photographed hobnobbing with a senior member of the Liberal Democratic > Party, the current ruling party. Several L.D.P. officials have been > photographed posing with the head of a neo-Nazi group in front of a > Japanese flag. Even the more centrist members of the L.D.P. proudly refer > to their country’s ethnic makeup as “homogeneous” — an impossible claim to > make of a former colonial empire. Nearly half of Abe’s cabinet belongs to a > group known as the League for Going to Worship Together at Yasukuni, a > shrine in Tokyo that commemorates Japanese soldiers, including a number of > convicted war criminals. Abe’s wife makes pilgrimages to Yasukuni, and Abe > sends offerings on holidays. > > One afternoon, I attended a festival at the Yasukuni Shrine. The entrance > was lined with tens of thousands of paper lanterns emitting a warm, golden > light. Visitors wandered around eating vanilla soft serve. I asked a man > why the festival was so important to him. “Koreans!” he said, and thrust > his middle finger into the air. “Fuck Chinese!” He wore a shirt with a > Japanese flag and text that read Japanese! be proud! you are the > descendants of the Yamato race. > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt > ions/marxism/wedontgiveup%40gmail.com -- -------------- Håkan Danielsson Educator and activist Med Andra(s) Ögon Hammarkroken 154 SE-424 36 Angered Sweden Ph +46 313302754 Mob +46 702990325 E-post wedontgiv...@gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
