Japanese awkwardness in expressing political opinion in public and US base in Okinawa

Upload: 21 December 2018, Last update: 17 February 2020

In Japan, relatively small number of people express political opinion in public, for example, compared with other countries, people speaking publicly politics in social network services are limited or people mostly do not join demonstration. They tend to care excessively others’ eyes in field of politics (Japanese may characteristically care too much other people though).

For younger generation, they may afraid that in case of job-hunting, the activity of political posts in sns or demonstration would negatively affect it. And workers may think of their careers. However, in a democratic society, it’s normal to speak out opinions. Particularly this problem has negative aspects for those who already having interests in politics. Even if they have their opinions in specific political matters, they do not express. The recent key word “diversity” is quite far from politics in Japan. In this respect, Japan is facing lack of political activities of citizens. This is related to low turnouts at elections.

In the past a few months, there’s a bit of change in this matter. With regard to the US military base in Okinawa, some famous celebrities and influencers posted comments promoting the petition titled “Stop the landfill of Henoko / Oura Bay until a referendum can be held in Okinawa”[1] to US government in their twitter and instagram. This petition can get a direct response from the US government if it assembled “100,000 Signatures in 30 Days”[2]. The fact that the Japanese government forcefully started this landfill is unbearable for many people. As of December 21 2018, about 151,000 people signed, and one month later, January 21 2019, the number amounted to more than 209,000[3].

This time, some celebrities broke the taboo and expressed opinion. In a society where people hesitate, this is a good progress and giving impression of being able to give opinions publicly.

Footnotes

[1]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-landfill-henoko-oura-bay-until-referendum-can-be-held-okinawa Accessed 21 December 2018.

[2]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ Accessed 21 December 2018.

[3]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-landfill-henoko-oura-bay-until-referendum-can-be-held-okinawa Accessed 21 December 2018.