＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Addition on 2/15/2024> Calling prisoners “san” from April this year is too much.
The Ministry of Justice announced on February 15 that it will change its practice to address all inmates and other persons in prisons and detention centers as “san” as part of a reform following an assault by a prison guard at Nagoya Prison in 2022, and will instruct all facilities to do so by the end of the year.
According to the Ministry, inmates were often referred to by their names, and in some cases, the verification of cases revealed that they were referred to as “prisoners” or “they,” etc. In light of the introduction in 2025 of the “confinement penalty,” which will position the purpose of punishment as “recovery,” the Ministry decided to change the way in which they were referred to.
A Ministry of Justice official commented, “There was a strong sense that prisoners were to be dealt with harshly. The revision of the terminology is a symbolic effort to reassess the relationship with prisoners, viewing them as objects of support.
However, this may be “political correctness,” but I think it is “too much” and too flattering to the inmates.
As an aside, the comedian Yasushi Yokoyama told a story about when he was sentenced to prison for assault and said, “In prison, they did not call me by name, but by number.
I have also written an article on the current majority theory of punishment, “The current majority theory of punishment is the relative retributive punishment theory, which is a compromise between the retributive punishment theory and the general prevention theory.
<「刑罰の考え方は応報刑論と一般予防説を折衷した相対的応報刑論が現在の多数説」>
１．Word Hunting
It was recently reported that the Chunichi Dragons have decided to “refrain” from using the word “Omae(you)” in the lyrics of their cheering song because it is inappropriate. This is clearly going too far, in my opinion.
The phrase “Let’s go XX (player’s name), if “Omae(you)” don’t hit, who will?” was included in a cheer song taken from Pink Lady’s hit song “Southpaw.
Director Tsuyoshi Yoda pointed out that it is not good for education, and the baseball team and the cheerleading squad discussed the issue and decided not to use it. It is said that it is inappropriate for a child to say “Omae(you)” to an older player.
However, I am not sure to what extent the self-restraint of cheering songs with the lyrics “Omae(you)” will have an educational improvement effect on children.
To digress, until the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the word “Omae(you)” was used to express respect to the other person in a word “gozen” (“Omae” is also a similar word). However, around the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804-1830), it became a word meaning “equal,” and around the Tempo period (1831-1845), it became a “cursing” word. This is an example of the “transition of the Japanese language.
Moreover, “Omae(you)” appears in the lyrics of the cheering songs of 12 baseball teams, as many as 8 teams in fact. I wonder if it is a good idea to suddenly complain about lyrics that we have been accustomed to for many years, as Chunichi did this time.
The term “障害者(handicapped)” should originally have been “障碍者,” but was replaced with “障がい者,” because the kanji for “碍” is not in the current list of kanji used in Japan and the character for “害（harm）” has a bad image, but this does not directly lead to a solution to the problem of discrimination against the disabled.
As a reminder, “word-hunting” is “when a word or phrase that used to be commonly used is now considered inappropriate by some people and becomes taboo.
２．Political Correctness
Political correctness means to put into socially correct terms.
This term came into use in the 1980s in the United States, a multi-ethnic nation, and refers to “the use of politically and socially fair and neutral language and expressions with the aim of preventing discrimination and prejudice based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and other factors.
However, this also does not mean that the use of “political correctness” will eliminate “racism” or “discrimination based on gender”. The same applies to the renaming of diseases as “infectious diseases,” “dementia,” “schizophrenia,” “leprosy,” etc., because they are discriminatory.
I think “word-hunting” and “political correctness” are both hypocritical and misguided attempts to gloss over the surface.
３．Background of an Intolerant Society
An “intolerant society” is one in which everyone is angry and unable to forgive others. It is a state in which everyone in the society is always unconsciously harboring feelings of irritation and anger toward someone or something other than themselves.
The following are generally cited as the reasons behind the current “intolerant society” in Japanese society.
① Increase in the number of people seeking stimulation of anger
② Amplification and spread of anger through mass media and SNS
③ Increase in the number of people who cannot suppress their emotions due to changes in the times
I believe that a major cause of this “overly critical society” is the articles in weekly magazines such as Friday, Bunshun, and Shincho, and the “information variety shows” on various TV stations that take up these articles and “agitate” them.
Television is now like a “tabloid” or “gossip paper. The critic Soichi Ohya once blackmailed television as “the mass media of the lowly 100 million morons,” and he may have foreseen this situation as well.
Another cause, I believe, is that in addition to the “agitation” by weekly newspapers and television, modern Japanese people are mentally “losing their composure” due to a lot of stress in a rapidly changing society with political and economic stagnation.
I believe that it is very important for an individual’s mental health to control excessive feelings of anger and to maintain a “peace of mind.
I hope you will refer to my previous article on “taking a deep breath to calm down.
<「深呼吸して気持ちを落ち着ける」>