Love of Nature

The whaling issue both inside and outside of Japan often seems to be as much emotional as anything else. I suppose that is something to be expected in the modern world. You have extremes on both sides of the issue---I have always been suspicious of Sea Shepard and also find much of the defense of whaling in Japan absurd as it is more of a nationalist/traditionalist argument* than anything based on science. You know, science that is peer reviewed and accepted outside of Japan.

I was at least somewhat suspicious about the Taiji dolphin kill as it has been reported to be depicted in the movie, The Cove. I haven't seen it yet, but figured it would be as much sensationalist as anything else. Perhaps I should withhold judgment until I do.

C. W. Nichols, who has been in Japan for decades, and who is a citizen, is someone whose opinions on matters of wildlife, wildlife management, and so on, I trust. He is no strict preservationist, has no Disneyland view of nature, is a hunter, a fisherman, and has professional experience in the conservation field.

He has written another column for the Japan Times in which he discusses the Taiji dolphin kill and whaling among other things:

I saw the kill for myself back in 1979 when I lived in that small Wakayama Prefecture fishing village for a year. I protested to the fishermen, to the Town Hall, and to the Fisheries Agency. Some years ago I published a book in Japan, with a chapter devoted to that slaughter and its extreme cruelty. I met the prefectural governor and warned him that the media would spread the Taiji kill all over the globe — and that Japan would be despised for it.

Nichols' arguments matter not to the nationalists defending these practices. I don't think anything does. The argument seems to be (as Nichols mentions in different words) that it is the world against poor little ol' Japan yet agin'. I have heard that from people, most recently when there was pressure to protect Blue Fin tuna. I never heard one single word of concern about the tuna population and the sustainability of the same level of fishing them. It almost seemed as if people thought the problem occurred because the rest of the world started enjoying tuna sushi and was eating all the tuna which by rights of tradition belonged to Japan.

But that's just from the folks I know. Perhaps others have performed some basic research on the issue to see if the official Japanese government position is solid, or maybe a just a little questionable. I mean, if you tell folks that Japan is the only country on earth with four clearly distinct seasons, nobody would accept that because in addition to the obvious silliness of the claim, finding the truth is just a google away.

*As for tradition, I agree with C.W. I have no problem with folks killing and eating wildlife as a part of tradition, unless doing so threatens the species. Minke whales don't fall into that category, as I understand it. But then again, even so, as far as whaling is concerned, the Japanese government position seems to be more nationalist than merely traditionalist.

...now we have 2 million registered foreigners, and one in every 30 babies born here has at least one foreign parent. We are in the midst of globalization whether we like it or not," Haku said. "We have to discuss very seriously how we should involve foreign residents in building our society."...Shinkun Haku, DPJ. Full article at The Japan Times.

A graceful death by hanging

In an effort to show that former Justice Minister Hatoyama was not a fluke, the new Minister Okiharu Yasuoka announced that he opposes offering a life sentence without parole in place of the state killing people by hanging.

Naturally, this is at least partially due to Japanese culture. As the late, great Ruth Benedict* said, Japan is a shame-based culture. Therefore, Yasuoka says that "the majority of people support the idea of dying gracefully to pay for a crime" and that life without parole "is cruel, and does not fit with Japanese culture.**" (quotes from a Japan Times article.)

I for one am very thrilled that Fukuda has replaced his cabinet. Now we will see real change and forward movement as a bunch of new retro-grouches of advanced years replace the old bunch of retro-grouches of advanced years and we can confidently rush headlong into the 1960s.

*Ms. Benedict is the author of the well-known The Chrysanthemum and the Sword in which she implies that Japan is a shame-based society vs. the guilt-based society of the West (the US in particular). She based a large part of her research on interviews of Japanese prisoners of war which may have been a bit of an unusual segment of Japanese society. There is an ongoing debate (here and here, for example) about her work which is surprising only because it is ongoing.

**Yasuoka may have a bit of a point here---of course the point is a few hundred years old:
...[Edo Period] prisons as there were held suspects awaiting verdicts or criminals awaiting sentencing. The sentence might be death (by crucifixion, for example), or exile, or flogging. But it was almost never a specified period of incarceration. The concept was scarcely known, and facilities all but nonexistent. Severity generally won the day in the name of public order...(From The Japan Times Tokyo Confidential which is based on stories from the tabloids. Some people consider the tabloids a bit more reliable---or at least less under political control than MSM.)

Japan Times reporter does not unnerstan' Japan

Kaori Shoji, a reporter with a seemingly Japanese name, does not seem to understand Japan, let alone the mysterious Orient:

It took a long time for me to recover from the blast of bullsh*t Orientalism that was "Memoirs of a Geisha." There were the usual symptoms: nausea, shaky hands and an attack of shudders every time I passed by the Oriental Bazaar on Tokyo's Omotesando avenue, among others...

..."Silk" is drenched with the kind of East Asian imagery that we in East Asia only experience in NHK dramas that you watch alongside grandparents... and a deep down, hopeful belief that these things still exist over here.

Full article here. Don't know how she felt about the classic "Last Samurai."

Unique love of nature: Japan

To show how much the country loves and respects nature, Japan is going to kill up to 50 humpback whales. Normally Japan has hunted minke whales which could arguably be repsonsible as the evidence suggests that minke are not threatened or endangered. Of course, if it is true that Japan has to use that meat for pet food and allows a lot to go to waste in warehouses, then there is no possible justification or excuse.

But now they have gone to humpbacks as threatened months ago during the IWC meeting when Japan went into a pout because it could not get its way. Ahhh, but those without the genetic connection to, love and respect for nature that in part of Japanese DNA don't understand. Poor Japan. A victim of foreign misunderstanding again. And anyway, they hunt kangaroos in Australia, so its ok for Japan to kill humpbacks.

Reuters story here while it lasts.

Remember: Tradition, real or not, home-grown or recently imported, explains and excuses everything in Japan.

Japan may quit IWC

Deja vu all over again. In the 30s Japan quit the League of Nations because the rest of the world didn't see fit to give Japan what it wanted in China. This began the collapse of the League. (It did not really collapse, but soon Japan's allies---Nazi Germany and Italy followed it out which certainly made the League less than relevant in preventing WW2.) Japan may take the same route with the International Whaling Commission since buying votes and issuing threats to increase its whaling more if it didn't get its way haven't worked.

Whale meat is not popular here, it is the nationalistic aspect which appeals. Japan as victim yet again! The government is trying to promote the consumption of the meat, but it doesn't seem they have been successful. There have been reports that much of it goes to waste in storage or is used to make pet food. They recently tried to get the few villagers who hunt whale declared indigenous hunters---like the Inuit. A few years ago, it tried to stop the Inuit and other indigenous people in remote areas from hunting since Japan couldn't. It reminds one of a spiteful 2 years old. If I don't get my way, I won't play.

I am personally undecided on minke hunting. From what I have read, it is sustainable and Japan and others should be able to hunt some as far as I am concerned. But when I see this type of action, along with its money politics, bandwagon logic, and spiteful temper-tantrums, I don't have much sympathy for Japan's position.

Story from Bloomberg HERE

Quick Japan news

SOS stickers going up in every car: ("JR East took the move after an incident last summer on the JR Hokuriku Line in which a man managed to rape a woman in a train because none of her fellow passengers alerted railway personnel.") From the Japan Times. Bushido?

Have today's Japanese lost their empathy? (Call to a suicide counciling hotline: "What do you think you are accomplishing by sitting there?" some have shouted. "Why don't you stop wasting your time on this useless counseling!" and ...."the percentage of Japanese who said it was important to help one another was the second lowest among the 18 countries surveyed."Is this new? Has Japan moved up a notch?) A hand-wringing editorial about them thar' ornery youngsters and others by the Yomiuru Shimbun.

University student arrested for abandoning newborn baby. Mainichi Daily News.

Woman stabbed to death in front of her Tokyo Home. Mainichi Daily

Japan promises it won't export toxic waste to the Philippines. Mainichi Daily (How thoughtful! "Environmental groups such as Greenpeace have urged the senators to reject the pact because of a provision allowing the trade of articles "which are fit only for disposal," as well as scrap and waste from manufacturing or processing operations.")

Foreign students can't start ekiden. Asahi News. Discrimination, racism in Japan?? NOOOOO!!!!
They have a real good reason for keeping non-Japanese out of the All Japan High School Ekiden Champonships. It's to make the race interesting for Japanese. If ya can't beat 'em, cheat!! Keep 'em out. Ware ware Nihonjin!! Damned baka gaijin anyway.

Baby found in garbage collection site. Asahi News

UN criticizes Japan on sex slaves. Foreigners are such a nuisance. Forbes.

I am confused. Wasn't long ago when we were hearing how dangerous non-Japanese in Japan are, but it seems nearly all the crime and nasty things done are done by Japanese!!!Perhaps foreigners should be afraid of Japanese.

Kyoto Protocol and Japan

I have to admit, once agin' I'm all confused. Sort of like when I repeatedly hear how polite folks are in Japan and then notice that it ain't exactly true.

Anyway, as everyone knows, people in Japan have a deep mysterious (and genetic) respect for, and love of nature that no other people have. It's the only country with four clearly distinct seasons so this is natural.

But I wonder if this is true, then why don't we get homes with effective insulation? Hot water pipes are bare, so we waste energy by losing the water's heat much more quickly than we would if they were insulated. Walls and ceilings have a bare minimum of insulation too. Windows are often single-pane. Our apartment costs as much as an apartment in Manhattan cost me in the fall of 1999, but 2 of our windows are not even designed to close tightly---air always leaks through. Not loving nature as much as the natives do, I had to put plastic sheeting over them to keep heated or air conditioned air inside.

I wonder why things are wrapped individually at the grocery store checkout in smaller plastic bags. Why do I get a plastic straw with every small 500ml juice or milk carton? Can't we just open it and drink from the carton? Why do the clerks at Precce wrap each glass bottle in a sheet of plastic foam? Do the bottles often break when carrying them in Japan? If so, does that small thin piece of foam help? Naturally these things originate in ancient Japanese tradition and culture, but one would assume that with such a great love of the natural environment that perhaps nature's health would take precedence over customs. But then again, I am not a pure Japanese, so I probably misunderstand the purity of heart that allows this seeming contradiction.

I also wonder, when I walk through Akihabara---Akiba---or other such areas in the middle of the summer, why are many shops operating their air conditioning full blast with the front doors open? Yes, the cool air is very attractive and can make one want to enter the shop, but wouldn't a nature-loving, Fujiwara-reading, neo-bushidoist be more concerned about the waste and environmental damage?

These are just a few things which seem to contradict the love of nature and the stance against global warming attributed to Japan. It seems that the only motivation for energy conservation is the extraordinary expense to consumers. Wow, that seems so human. I am sure that there is an explanation for all this. I am also pretty sure it is all just cultural thing and even though this stuff seems like waste, it really isn't and my perception is all due to the fact that I don't understand Japan. It's different here. Up is down. Black is white. Coercion is not coercion.

Child porn not so bad either

Several years ago the Japanese government was embarrassed into taking action against the huge child pornography industry in Japan. (The troublesome US was going to put Japan on a watch list.) It was one of the largest sources of child porn in the world. (I remember going to a so-called "love hotel" in the late 80s and turning on the TV to a video of naked 10-12 year old girls swimming. How erotic.)

However, as with everything else, child porn in Japan can be explained and excused by referring to culture and tradition. Especially among some men---don't say "perverts," it shows a lack of cultural sensitivity. That would be using western values. I don't see or hear of many adult Japanese women clamoring for child porn. But let's remember Fujiwara's bushido. Women didn't really have an equal position under the wonderful pure ethics of bushido. So who cares what they think? Shut up and serve the tea woman, then maybe you'll find a good man to serve as a wife.

Magazines focusing on preteen girls in thongs may not be pornography since it is hard to define legally. I wouldn't doubt that you could find similar images in other countries too, so therefore it must be ok.

Anyway, The Japan Times Online has an article about the latest trend in cutting edge Akihabara Japan. One of the mothers of a child model in this article has no problem with he daughter posing in a magazine which sexually arouses men. She thinks her daughter has a "neutral sexless beauty" (Is she an idiot?) and:

"The industry doesn't want me to talk about the details of what's going on behind closed doors," she said. But she hinted that she has seen some mothers forcing their crying children to put on sexy swimsuits for the camera.

The really bad, disgusting thing to many folks here is not this, but women touching up their makeup on a train. Oh, horrors!

From the Japan Times Online by Jun Hongo HERE

Murderer still at large.

Lindsay Hawker's murderer (Tatsuya Ichihashi), has still not been captured after he ran away barefoot from 9 Japanese "police officers" as they surrounded his apartment while investigating her disappearance. They soon found her body in a sand-filled bathtub on his balcony. She had been beaten and strangled.

Was this unusual in "safe" Japan? Well, murder is unusual in most places. But the stalking, assaults, rapes and so on do happen. The Japan Times has another article about this:

Reported stalking cases likely just the tip of the iceberg.

"A whiny male voice asked me in Japanese if I was Laura," Fitch recalls of the morning two years ago. "I was tired, I wasn't thinking about who he could be, and I answered yes. "Then he said, 'Is this the Laura that lives at such and such an address?' and I said yes again. Then he said, 'You just got out of the shower, right? ' " Fitch explains, adding that she had a small window in her bathroom that looked out to the front of her building. "At that point I clued in and freaked out. I hung up immediately, checked my locks and called my friend who lived next door...

...After receiving her first freaky phone call, Fitch went straight to the police, who she says were "not too concerned"..."I was told that he was just a boy having fun, that I should change my number and forget about it....

...."I could hear him jacking off on the phone and he asked me if I had ever seen a Japanese penis and then he would proceed to blow his load"...."However, that still wasn't enough for the police and they said that he had to want to date me"...

How, you wonder, can The Japan Times be so open about stories that other Japanese newspapers gloss over or ignore? One, it is made for foreign residents, and secondly it is not a member of the kisha, the "press club" used by the government to control and manipulate the press by eliminating access to official sources to those who piss it off.

The Victim Support Center in Tokyo is at (03) 5287-3338 should one need to contact an organization who will help with a similar problem when the Japanese "police" are too busy playing mahjong to help.

Japan's deep respect for nature

Along with the tooth fairy myth, this has to be one of the more absurd things that people believe. Here is an interview with C.W. Nicol, a now Japanese citizen, but originally from England, naturalist and writer who has lived in Japan for 27 years and is quite knowledgeable of the environmental issues here.

He occasionally writes nature columns for the Japan Times.

When I first came to Japan, and later, when I visited or lived in villages and small towns, folk would welcome the swallows, and put out small trays under their nests if the mess bothered them. Some even hung upside-down umbrellas under the nests for this reason. Swallows not only nested under eaves, but even inside buildings.

It was still like that 25 years ago when I first came to Kurohime, here in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture where I live. At that time, swallows nested inside the station and it was a delight to watch them. Then the station was redecorated, and they were discouraged from nesting inside. Lately though, to discourage these lovely little harbingers of summer, the squeamish locals have been spreading ugly plastic sheets all over the place and hanging fake crows outside as well.

Some years ago, I heard from a friend that the manager of a golf club house in Karuizawa had 30 or so swallow nests, with young inside, destroyed because a lady complained about a speck of bird dropping on her blouse. I've heard similar stories about a supermarket here where I live.

...To me this is all a sign of the increasing selfishness and mean-spiritedness of so many contemporary Japanese who seem to either not know of or not care about the beauty of the birds themselves, or the long journeys they have made from distant Southeast Asian countries or faraway India -- let alone their wonderful soaring flight or all the harmful insects they consume.

Unique love of nature? Like that of most city folks everywhere, only in the abstract. Only as Disney "nature."

Loved in Japan, disgusting to the west

'Murder copied from a comic'

COPS were last night probing the possibility that comic-book fan Ichihachi copied Lindsay’s grisly murder from a CARTOON story.

Police found piles of violent Japanese Manga comics at the suspect’s flat.

The weekly cartoon-books — which are as popular as newspapers in Japan — frequently feature stories of young women and schoolgirls being raped and tortured...

“Lindsay, like most westerners, found them disgusting."

“They’re cartoon porn and Japanese men get a real kick out of them."

From The Sun Online.
(Full Story)

Lots of Japanese find them disgusting too, but it is true that you can occasionally see men reading them openly on the train (though not so often anymore). This must be bushido. Well, at least Japan has started doing something about the child porn that until 2004 it was a major source for.

Those semi-human women

Further reflecting Abe's "Beautiful Country" policy in which Japanese children would be coerced into patriotism which would, I guess, make other countries respect Japan, health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa today gave his vision of Japanese women as "birth-giving machines." Ahh, bushido?

"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head, although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines."

Return to Yasukuni

Sooner or later. The LDP had a convention praising Abe and his reforms of the education laws to force feed patriotism to children.

Abe told the 74th LDP convention that his government built the foundation last year to create a "beautiful nation" with the passage of several bills. They include controversial revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education, requiring schools to instill a sense of patriotism in students.

The party also adopted the position that its members would continue to visit Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine, a major bone of contention with China and South Korea.

and

Abe wants the key campaign issue to be revising the Constitution."The Constitution is the framework, the shape of the nation, and based on the spirit behind the foundation of the (LDP), I would like to go after revising the Constitution," Abe said.

Others are bit concerned that Abe and his ilk are a real threat to democracy.
According to this story, one result of some of the right-wing nutjob education reforms has resulted in what has been called by teachers as a sort of loyalty test. (Ruled unconstitutional by the Tokyo District Court, but Shitaro "Blinky" Ishara's administration is appealing. Sorry, I meant Shintaro.)

Speaking of Blinky, he is on track for his 3rd term as Tokyo governor. It appears that the citizens of Tokyo support, or at least do not reject, his racism. What does that say about Tokyo voters?

Food companies and old ingredients.

Once again, a major Japanese food producer has been caught using old milk---past its expiration date---and other old ingredients of questionable saftey in food. Several years ago, Snow (brand) milk was caught re-packaging expired milk and selling it as new. Now Fujiya, a major confectioner has been caught using old milk. They used old milk, old eggs, and old jam to make cakes and pastries. The management knew about this, but kept it quiet for a period because nobody got sick. It did NOT recall a single product until the practice of producing unsafe food with bacterial levels above government standards was disclosed.

This is quite a shock as I always hear from folks that Japanese food is the safest in the world. Everyone trusts Japanese food. Even thought his type of thing repeatedly occurs. But it's not really a problem of course, because in your country---whichever it is---there have been food safety problems too. Therefor, Japan's problem is nothing special, and nobody--especially non-Japanese, have any right to say anything. Just be a happy boy or girl and repeat how wonderful and unique (and incomprehensible to others) Japan is.

Anyway, the president will resign---they always do and then take another position in the company. The article is in the Japan Times here.

Precce (Tokyu) does something strange with its milk nearing its expiration date too as I wrote about earlier here.

Uniquely Japanese

An article from the New York Times (HERE) and the problem with inbreeding (pets) in Japan. It seems that some breeders are so crooked that the set up puppy mills and sell overly inbred dogs to make a quick profit. Inbred to the extent that some are born without eye noses, or bones that dissolve in their bodies.

From the article:

The breeder told Mr. Sasaki that he had bred a dog with three generations of offspring — in human terms, first with its daughter, then a granddaughter and then a great-granddaughter — until Keika was born. The other four puppies in the litter were so hideously deformed that they were killed right after birth.

Perhaps this is bushido. Or perhaps it is the result of foreign interference. Or, as is explained in this article, it could be connected to the declining birth rate in Japan which has caused the demand for dogs as sort of substitutes for children for some.

And they must be pure. No mixed breeds wanted.

Of course we can excuse this in Japan by pointing out that other countries have some sort of problem with puppy mills too. Therefore, It's OK.

Government tells Iranian family to get out of Japan

Japan is not a very friendly country for refugees. It actually has one of the worst records for admitting political refugees of any country. (For example, see the article by Yumi Isozaki of the Mainichi Shimbun here: "we may send money out, but we will not let people in" and "Over the twenty years from when Japan joined the International Convention on Refugees up until last year, I am aware of only one case in which the plaintiff won an appeal to reconsider a denial of refugee status." ) However, Japan wants a place on the UN Security Council.

At present, it, along with the US are being very hardcore on North Korea. In fact, a few people have told me that they are afraid that the US will back off on its pressure on North Korea over nukes because the Democrats won the election. Japan can bluff and run its big mouth with little risk, as it will hide behind the US. Should there be a war in Korea, Japan hasn't a lot to lose unless North Korea is able to attack it. Even then, its risks are limited. The US will have to do most of the fighting with (possible) support from South Korea. Japan will do as little as possible except maybe throw money at the problem.

Should North Korea collapse, China will have to deal with the refugees, as will South Korea, the US, likely Australia, and other countries in the region. EXCEPT for JAPAN. You can bet it will stick to its policy of denying refugees. (30 December: I have heard that Japan DOES have a plan in place to accept North Korean refugees should it collapse. 11 January: The fact on this is that Japan has a plan in the works---said to be poorly thought out---which would allow North Korean refugees to stay in Japan for a year or two at the most. Japan has no intention on allowing any large permanent influx of non-Japanese, be they refugees, starving children or whatever.)

Friday the Japanese government refused to allow an Iranian family to remain in Japan and ordered them to get out by January, despite a petition with 10,000 signatures asking that they be allowed to stay. The family has been here since the early 90s with 2 daughters, one born in Japan who can only speak Japanese. Admittedly, the father came here illegally, but applied for residency. The Japan Times has a short article from which the title of this post came HERE.

Keep out refugees. If some slip in, kick them out.

Japan, in the world, but not of it. This must be the bushido that old Dignity of a State, Masahiko Fujiwara, talks of. Yes, this is a perfect example of the dignity of the Japanese government. And remember (although Fujiwara himself dislikes democracy) it is still a democratic government and as such, represents the will of its citizens.

Dignity of a State (which rigs town meetings)

This has been in the news for a few weeks, but it appears---in fact the government admits that it has been putting government plants in town meetings to push the governments point of view. One thing pushed is the new government emphasis of patriotism. Japan Times has an article of how the government did this in a September meeting in Aomori thus limiting real questions from real citizens to a total 0f 8 minutes in a 2 hour meeting:

The government has admitted planting school-board officials and other allies in five town meetings over a three-year period, having them pose government-drafted questions and make government-drafted comments that put a positive spin on patriotic education.

Citizens attending the Sept. 2 town meeting in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, for example, were greeted by slogans on a screen inviting "the voice of the people" to "a direct dialogue with the Cabinet," so that "your opinions will make Japan's future."

A question period followed nearly two hours of speeches by education ministry officials. Ten people rose -- six of whom, reports Sunday Mainichi, were plants. Each questioner was limited to two minutes. In short, "in a meeting lasting 120 minutes, 'the voice of the people' was allotted all of eight minutes." From The Japan Times here.

In nearly every area, Japan, writers like Fujiwara, movies, the news media, seem to be pushing strongly for the same thing: Patriotism, whatever that may mean here. You might look at Japan's past history to find out. Even 20 years ago during the "bubble." There was NO shortage of love of Japan, Japan as number 1, pride, patriotism, and arrogance during that period. Certainly wasn't during the early 90s when I was here before even though the bubble had already officially collapsed.

Is Japan a bad place to live?

One of the tough things when writing about Japan---or anywhere--is to provide some sort of balance. I do not. When I read back through my posts, it seems most are critical. Since one of the points of writing this is to counter the tourists and Japanophiles who believe the propaganda---that Japan is a uniquely unique country where all the people are always kind, thoughtful, and polite, where there is some zen-like respect for nature, and how everything is just all wonderful here. Also, when I went through undergrad school, I majored in East Asian Studies (minored in business---a mistake I made from believing the then current Japan is the future nonsense) and one of the most popular Japan "experts" was Edwin O. Reischauer, whose version of Japan was all sugar-coated half truths. Not fully false, but very obviously misleading. He has been pretty much discredited now, but I would like to continue to contribute to his discreditation (if that is a word.)

So is Japan a horrible place to live? It would seem so from simply reading my posts. But, frankly it is not. In fact, for a foreigner---we are talking a white foreigner of American/British/Australian/European origins---the ones for whom the somewhat derogatory term gaijin really applies, it can be a relatively good life. That is one reason many tend to turn a blind eye to anything less than perfect about Japan.

People are generally very "polite" to you, at least to your face. Of course, politeness is politeness by Japanese standards, which on the surface are agreeable to most. Racial discrimination is rarely in one's face. It is more subtle and institutionalized.

You will receive special treatment almost any and everywhere. That this in itself is discrimination doesn't bother most, in fact many enjoy it. Unfortunately, some seem to believe it and assume they are kinda special.

You can get a job for which your only qualification is that you are a native speaker. It is easier to get this job if you are white. Things have improved, but if you are say, African-American, it can be more difficult because some will worry about getting a "black" accent from studying a language under you. If you are Asian, well who wants to study a language from someone who does not look like their stereotype of an Australian, American, etc? One small problem is that this is about the only job you are gonna get. (Oh wait, you're different. You are gonna learn Japanese and Japanese culture and fit into Japan---become more Japanese than the Japanese---and then you'll work as a salaryman. Of course you will.) You'll be happy to know that the most important thing about you is your race, followed by national origin.

Besides, the country itself is interesting. You do have to live on a smaller scale. One day vacations can actually seem enjoyable here. By that I mean a one-day or overnight trip that costs $5-600 and would seem rushed by other standards can be somewhat relaxing. The food is great. Don't like Japanese food? No problem (are you nuts?) you can eat almost any type of food it you have the money to eat out. And most of it will be very good. You can enjoy tradition Japanese things, old temples etc., and if you know, or learn Japanese history, this will become even more enjoyable.

In fact, if you don't think too much; if you don't read much; if you don't learn Japanese well enough to know what is being said or written about Japan by the Japanese; and if you only care that people smile and are "polite" and treat you like you are special (either a genius or an idiot who cannot possibly understand the simplest thing about Japan), then you can live a very pleasant life here. Of course the fact that you are not taken seriously, that you are not expected to really participate in society and can live a simple life with few adult-level responsibilities beyond your job (and if you are in eikaiwa, you needn't even do it there) might be less than wonderful. Not many can continue this self-deception for more than a few years, though. Occasional visitors/tourists can maintain this forever.

Japan is not a horrible place to live. In fact, I would much rather live here than any other country in Northeast Asia, and probably any other in Asia. But I have a family and a reason for living here. It would not be a choice I would make, nor recommend over the long-term otherwise.

Whaling

It is hard to be sympathetic to Japan, even though I believe it has a point on allowing some commercial whaling, when if it doesn't get its way, it pouts like a child and does things for spite.

Japan lost in its effort to allow whaling (as was discussed below) and now it will increase its "scientific" harvest. This is in spite of the fact that there is little ot no market for whale meat and lost of it is simply stored or even rumored to be used in pet food.
So the question is, if nobody is eating it, and there is no market for whale meat in Japan, why do they kill them? Science? Then why insist on commercial whaling? To support Norway? That I doubt.