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What does 'liberal' mean for a Japanese?

gaijinalways

puzzled gaijin
15 Jan 2006
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Recently on another forum, I had a bit of a laugh with a moderate right winger opining that he is a liberal! Strangely enough, several of his foreign friends on the board agreed (those these guys show a lot of mob mentality, so I don't value their opinions too highly). I know for example that the defintion of a liberal is different in Europe and the US, but this guy believes;


the Chinese, Taiwanese, and Koreans should stop whining about the Yasukuni Shrine (even if they didn't want their names on there)

Japan modernized parts of Korea, Mongolia, and China during the occupations of those areas and endowed the locals with 'equal' rights

denies there were any comfort women, claiming they were all working as willing prostitutes

claims the 731, etc units were only using prisoners on death row anyway

the Chinese keep using the Nanjng ツ'incident'as a political prod as Japanese soldiers killed a few people there, but few if any civilians

Defends the 'black van' guys by trying to claim they want foreigners to do the dirty work here (even as they broadcast that all foreigners should get out of Japan)

claims Japan is being singled out for criticism because of being Asian when looking at whaling issues (overlooking the fact that Norway and Finland are losing more tourism dollars as more of their main visitors are concerned with animal rights than most Asians coming to Japan)

has a theory of dangerous America/safe Japan which he uses to defend discriminatory practices in Japan concerning housing availablility, employment, etc..

believes in the foreign crime wave theory, even though the 'wave' is minimal with over half the crimes of foreigners being immigration violations while the majority of criminals commiting crimes and serving time in prison are Japanese


Can anyone figure out how a right wing history revisionist considers himself liberal? Most of his posts complain about how some foreigners should not be pushing for changes in Japan (since they are not Japanese) and they are not behaving like the Japanese!? The only thing that sounds liberal is his defintion of 'liberal'!:p
 
Hell if that is "liberal" then I guess the regime in North Korea has got to be centrist to him.

Did you happen by chance to ask him what his definition of a conservative is?
 
Sounds like my husband. He thinks he's a real radical. You know, he thinks he's the nail that stuck up and wasn't hammered down. He also thinks the emperor should be idolized, and goddess forbid, you should poke fun of him. He also believes that a woman shouldn't be empress, Nanjing didn't happen(or just dismisses it as "part of war")...oh, I could go on and on, but it infuriates me too much to think about it...

Oh well.

:eek:
 
it is the same.
For non-Americans, the Fox guy and NYT still fight on the same ball game park, even though they call each others, facist, ultra-leberal-anti-US or something.
 
I'll have to check back in the other forum, but I have resigned myself to thinking he may think he is liberal for a Japanese, though personally I have met some Jpanese that are far more liberal than him.

it is the same.
For non-Americans, the Fox guy and NYT still fight on the same ball game park, even though they call each others, facist, ultra-leberal-anti-US or something.

Pipokun, I am not sure I understand what you are referring to. Could you please clarify that a bit?
 
I don't know how sensitive is the Vietnam war in the US now, but I was so surprised it is still highly sensitive matter in South Korea.
I was also surprised to know some Koreans see movies with strong anti-war messages such as Grave of the Fireflies or Letters from Iwo Jima highly offensive movies because they lacks Korean point of views.

Therefore, it is a long, long way to go in Asia.

*snip*
If the loud 'black van' would be a bit louder to violate the regulation concerned, police surely arrests them. But unfortunately you cannot arrest someone who drive a bit slowly.
 
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