Japanese

"The dignity of Japanese"

The other day, I saw news that the nonpayment of school meal cost has increased and it has become an object of public concern. It seems that there are really needy families that are not afford to pay it, but also there are some families that do not want to pay it even though they can afford to make trips to Hawaii. One of those mothers explained the reason of the nonpayment in an interview that lunch should be provided for nothing under the compulsory education, but as the amount of nonpayment has become tens of millions of yen, schools and local governments can't help but drop the quality of lunch or make it up with citizen's tax.

Recently, people who care only about themselves seem to have increased. When I see the news, such as structurally defective building scandals, collusive bidding at the initiative of government agencies for the public work projects, the emersion of market fundamentalists who lip off companies, the housing improvement fraud to dementia elderly people, the billing fraud, the vicious loan/collection of consumer credit and the group shoplifting scandals etc., it comes as a bit of shock to learn that people who can exploit someone's vulnerability easily has increased in Japan.

I saw a very unpleasant scene recently in the world of sports also. It was a match of a Japanese boxer named Kameda. At an interview of the match day before, Kameda came into the room holding chicken leg and bit it in front of the Nicaraguan boxer who suffered from weight loss and insulted him repeatedly. It was a very ugly scene. His non-gentlemanly act was bad enough, but what really annoyed me was that he took advantage of hometown and insulted the forlorn opponent repeatedly. Anyhow he is a boxer who is trying to be a champion. He should learn the attitude he has to take to the low-ranked opponent as a champion. It goes without saying that his immaturity is bad enough, but what left me dumbfounded was that the adults surrounding him who leave him to do such vulgar acts and the mass communication which report the affairs funnily. If Nicaraguan sees such a scene on TV, they should feel that Japanese is arrogant nation and should doubt the dignity of Japan.

The symbol of Japanese culture used to be courtesy, modesty, humility and consideration toward others. It is certain that Japanese sense of values has changed in the wake of something recently.

2006/05/16