＜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) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・最近の日本は「キャンセル・カルチャー」や「正義の暴走」が目立つ不寛容社会。
<Added 2022/9/12> Regarding the report of Teruyuki Kagawa’s “sexual assault at a Ginza club”
On August 24th, *Daily Shincho* reported that actor Teruyuki Kagawa had committed “sexual assault” (a settlement has been reached) against a hostess at a Ginza club in July 2019. As a result, he faced a massive backlash, leading to the cancellation of numerous commercials and television programs. I was particularly saddened by the cancellation of NHK’s E-TV program “Insects are Amazing,” as I, as an insect enthusiast, frequently watched it.
He’s such a good actor, and I feel both malice from the weekly magazine and the cold-heartedness of the sponsoring companies and television stations prioritizing “avoiding public reputation risk” over his reputation.
Recently, even just considering the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, we’ve seen a series of unusual events: former Prime Minister Mori (chairman of the organizing committee), Hiroshi Sasaki (director of production), Keigo Oyamada (music producer for the opening and closing ceremonies), and Kentaro Kobayashi (director of the opening ceremony) all resigned or were dismissed after being criticized for their past actions and statements.
Furthermore, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, excessive actions and criticisms such as “mysterious and excessive measures” and “self-restraint police” have become increasingly noticeable.
I believe this recent trend in Japanese society is a “cancellation culture” and an “intolerant society” characterized by “the excesses of justice.”
It’s important to be aware that this abnormal state can easily go unnoticed if one is “stopping thinking.”
I recall seeing similar scenes during the Cultural Revolution in China, when critics of Mao Zedong were publicly humiliated and forced to reflect on their actions under the guise of “self-criticism.”
1. What is Cancel Culture?
“Cancel culture” refers to the collective denunciation of a specific individual.
Specifically, it involves condemning the statements and actions of specific targets, such as celebrities, and initiating boycotts or demanding the cancellation of programs airing on television, in an attempt to exclude those targets.
Cancel culture has emerged since the mid-2010s, primarily in the United States.
This is a type of “call-out culture,” which involves thoroughly condemning the mistakes of others. It’s a phenomenon akin to a boycott, where the target is dismissed with the words, “You are cancelled.”
“Call-out culture” originally referred to a form of public shaming, where a member of a community is identified for wrongdoing, publicly summoned, and subjected to shame or punishment.
“Call-out culture” is also known as “outrage culture.” “Outrage” means rage, violence, and heinous acts.
2. The Rampage of Justice and the Noisy Minority
“The Rampage of Justice” refers to “people and their actions that are like an excessive hammer of justice,” and is also called “the rampage of a sense of justice.”
Typical examples include “self-restraint police” and the case of professional wrestler Hana Kimura, who appeared on the TV program “Terrace House TOKYO 2019-2020” and committed suicide after being subjected to persistent criticism on social media.
On the other hand, the actions of the “noisy minority” (a vocal minority) are also a concerning trend in recent Japanese society.
The voices of the noisy minority can drown out the voices of the majority (the silent majority) and silent social minorities, leading to the phenomenon where “the voices of the noisy minority are mistakenly perceived (or made to appear mistakenly perceived) as the majority opinion or the consensus of social minorities.” Furthermore, when the claims of a noisy minority are continuously disseminated and recognized, the “conformity phenomenon/cognitive bias” causes those claims to be perceived as the consensus of the masses, leading to the strange phenomenon where the “noisy minority eventually becomes the noisy majority.”
3. What is an intolerant society?
An “intolerant society” is a society where “everyone is unable to forgive others and is constantly angry.” It is a state where everyone in society unconsciously harbors feelings of frustration and anger towards someone or something other than themselves.
Currently, the following are generally cited as reasons for Japan becoming an “intolerant society”:
① An increase in people seeking stimuli that provoke anger
② Amplification and spread of anger through mass media and social media
③ An increase in people unable to control their emotions due to changing times
I believe a major cause of this “overly critical society” is the articles in photo magazines like Friday, and weekly magazines like Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Shincho, and how these articles are picked up and “stirred up” by various television stations’ “information variety programs.”
Television has now become like a “tabloid” or “gossip newspaper.” The critic Soichi Oya once swiftly criticized television as a “vulgar mass medium that leads to the idiocy of the entire nation,” and he may have foreseen this situation.
Another cause, in addition to the “stirring up” by weekly magazines and television, is that modern Japanese people are under a lot of stress and have lost their “peace of mind” due to a sense of political and economic stagnation and a rapidly changing society.
I believe that suppressing excessive anger and maintaining “peace of mind” is extremely important for each individual’s mental health.
I previously wrote an article on “taking deep breaths to calm yourself,” which I hope you will find helpful.
4. The dismissal of Kentaro Kobayashi, who was in charge of the opening ceremony’s production, was triggered by the rash actions of Vice Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama.
The fact that a past interview article in which Keigo Oyamada spoke about the excessive bullying he experienced during his student days was spread on social media just before the opening of the Olympics feels less like an act of justice and more like “harassment and malice by people opposed to the Olympics.”
However, the revelation of Kentaro Kobayashi’s “past comedy skits that used the Holocaust as a theme,” and the subsequent protest statement from Jewish organizations, was triggered by the rash actions of Vice Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama.
Vice Minister Nakayama, having obtained this information from his social media followers, immediately contacted a Jewish organization he knew without consulting the organizing committee or Prime Minister Suga. This is “a blatant disregard for governance and national interests.”
It was originally just an “inappropriate comedy skit by a former comedian,” but I think it should have been obvious that contacting a Jewish organization before contacting the organizing committee or Prime Minister Suga would have caused a huge uproar and brought international criticism to Japan…