<< Manipulation and brainwash >>

I am now writing about the corruption of Japanese and foreign media. I think it will take a little more time to complete.

While I am writing, I always keep searching for information that is relevant to the issue. And I found a good one. I thought before reading my writing, this would help you understand better about the issue. And it is more convincing for you to hear an opinion which is similar to mine.

The information is from Mr. Kent Gilbert again. I referred to his opinions quite oftentimes here in my blog before. The reason why I do that is because Mr. Gilbert is American with American nationality. His family members are all Americans too.

And he spent nearly 40 years in Japan. However, spending a long time in a foreign country doesn’t mean that he or she is automatically understanding the native people’s way of thinking. As the matter of fact, most of people living in a foreign country don’t understand the local people’s way of thinking. Why I say this? Because I’ve actually seen a lot of Japanese immigrants who lived in the US and weren’t able to understand American people’s way of thinking despite living in the US more than 20 years. I was of course one of them until I ran into some opportunity which made me understand American way of thinking.

So the chances are very high, if you are American living in Japan for 20 or 30 years, you will remain to have American way of thinking without being able to understand Japanese way of thinking.

If you are American or westerner, when you look at East Asians, you will think “There are good and bad people in any country”. You don’t let go this idea regardless how long you live in Japan or Korea or China.

You instinctively reject the idea “Each county has totally different way of thinking”.

You don’t want to accept the differences by nationality because you wrongly think “Generalizing people by nationality is racism” without acknowledging “There are extremely different races and countries exist where people are homogeneous and have evenly same way of thinking, therefore “There are only this type of people in this country and that country” you have to be able to say even though exceptional people exist in small number.

Therefore, naturally you end up refusing to learn the differences by nationality, thus remaining to be ignorant no matter how years you live in East Asian countries. In another word, if you aren’t stubborn but are flexible and have acute insight, you will be able to understand the difference by nationality of East Asian without living in East Asian countries.

Having said that, what’s special about Mr. Gilbert is, he can recognize the differences by nationality. He knows and explains Japanese and Koreans are totally different people. He’s very rare. Don’t you think? He is American, therefore he originally has a belief “There are good and bad people in any country” thinking all East Asians are the same.

Just like Japanese and Americans, Koreans also remain Koreans no matter how long they live in Japan although there are exceptional cases in small number.

Now, let’s listen to Mr. Gilbert’s opinion about Japanese media.

I copied and pasted his writing (He kindly wrote in English in his blog) below. His writing was published on July 8 of this month.

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< Common Knowledge Revisited 124 > by Kent Gilbert

The local political party “Tokyo Residents First Group” headed by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike won an unexpectedly large victory in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election held on July 2nd, garnering 55 seats, including new party members who joined after the election.

With this election, it became clear that a large portion of the media is in overdrive with its bare-knuckled campaign to overthrow Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has made clear his intention to amend the constitution. By contrast, the cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are unguarded and on the defensive.

A portion of the media is fiercely biased with reports made solely for the purpose of image manipulation, as they breathlessly report any information which may damage the Abe administration regardless of whether it includes any illegality or is backed by any evidence and at the same time basically refuse to report any information which is advantageous [to the administration].

 The “Kaku Gakuen” issue is a case in point. Democratic Party (DP) diet member Yuichiro Tamaki who is leading the pursuit of this issue has close connections with the Japan Veterinarians Association which violently opposes the establishment of a new veterinary department. However, a majority of the media has ignored this

 When Prime Minister Abe spoke in front of Akihabara Station during the metropolitan assembly election, some people called out “Go Home!” or “Abe Resign!” and displayed a huge banner, all election campaign obstruction [which is illegal].

 In response, Prime Minister Abe said, “We must not give in to these people.” Many people listening to him speak must have felt great satisfaction. However, news shows ignored the election law violations and only criticized the prime minister.

 Many television stations are not in compliance with Article 4(4) of the Broadcast Law which requires that broadcasters must “clarify the points at issue from as many angles as possible where there are conflicting opinions concerning an issue.” It seems clear that they really do think that their job is to guide public opinion through image manipulation.

 I think Prime Minister Abe should come up with a serious policy to deal with the media. Key flagship terrestrial television stations pay just a few tens of millions of dollars per year to use the air waves. In other words, they exemplify vested interests protected by bedrock regulation.

 It is not necessary to cancel the license or block broadcasting by broadcasters who have no intention of obeying the Broadcast Law. It is sufficient just to put their rights to use the air waves up for auction. In exchange, I think Broadcast Law Art. 4, which requires “political fairness,” could be abolished.

 I would also like to work with television manufacturers. Remote controls are divided into “terrestrial,” “BS [broadcast satellite]” and “CS [communication satellite]” sections [with the default setting being “terrestrial], which is very inconvenient. Access to a seamless programming schedule, including internet broadcasters, would no doubt increase the media literacy of viewers.

 I also have a suggestion for the upcoming cabinet reshuffle. To break the current deadlock, I suggest a bold move to put the right man in the right job with Shigeharu Aoyama as defense minister, Yoichi Takahashi as finance minister, and Tohru Hashimoto as minister of justice.

https://ameblo.jp/workingkent/

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Now, the most important parts in his writing, which I want you to pay attention to, are below.

< A portion of the Japanese media is fiercely biased with reports made solely for the purpose of image manipulation, as they breathlessly report any information which may damage the Abe administration regardless of whether it includes any illegality or is backed by any evidence and at the same time basically refuse to report any information which is advantageous [to the administration].>

< It seems clear that they really do think that their job is to guide public opinion through image manipulation.>

See? < Manipulation; labeling him ”this” and “that. And “Refusing to report any information that can help turn the impression of President Abe upward” >

 Japanese media became “Anti-Japanese brainwashing cult” now.

And why I mentioned Koreans for Mr. Gilbert’s writing? Well, there is a reason for what’s going on in Japanese media that has very much to do with Koreans.

That’s what I am going to explain in my writing with many evidences.

That’s about it for today. 

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<< Things that can’t be understood by women >>

I have been taking a little break to post my writing recently because it is really wearing me out. I have my own company to run but this writing is a really big job for me. And it is an even bigger job than my everyday work. Hahaha. So if I spent my time for writing at the end of week, I wouldn’t feel like I had a day off. You know what I mean?

But anyway, I know many people are visiting my blog, so I felt obligation to post something.

I have just begun to write about “Why you never can get any accurate information about Japan and East Asia as far as relying on English language”

It takes so much time to collect information and evidences to complete my writing.

In a meanwhile, I’m going to talk about something else today.

You might not know this.

In Japan, one of the most wel-known and preferred Hollywood movie stars is Clint Eastwood.

I am in 40s now. More than 20 years ago, when I was in the US, I had an opportunity to talk to an American lady who was probably in 60s.

I don’t clearly remember what was the conversation we had because my English was way horrible than it is now. But I clearly remember when the topic was about my favorite Hollywood movie star. I said several stars such as Meg Ryan because she was on Japanese TV commercials all the time and was one of the most preferred Hollywood figures back then. But what really made me surprised most was the reaction from her when I said “Clint Eastwood”. She immediately frawned and said “He is so mean!”

At that time, I didn’t know what “mean” meant. After returning home, I checked it in my dictionary (There wasn’t internet available back then) and found out what she meant. And I found myself laughing a lot. I thought “How could she say that?”

Clint Eastwood was the most adored and preferred Hollywood movie star in Japan. People in Japan were calling him “The coolest Hollywood star” back then. I wasn’t expecting to see that kind of negative reaction from the American lady which really made me surprised.

Right now, many satellite TV programs are doing “Clint East Special” in Japan.

Entire month of July is dedicated for Clint Eastwood movies.

When I was a kid, my father would tell me “Watch this movie tonight. That’s a good one!” And most of them were western movies. Especially those called “Macaroni western movies” were the greatest. “Macaroni” meant Italian. Although the move was filmed as American movies, but they were actually filmed in Italy so people in Japan called them “Macaroni (Italian) Western movies”. Clint Eastwood was the representative of Macaroni Western movies.

His best macaroni western movies were “For a few dollars more”, “The good the bad and the ugly”, and “A fistful of dollars”.

“A fistful of dollars” was a remake movie of “Yojimbo” which was the hottest Samurai movie back then.

I also loved “Dirty Harry” series.

So I was going after Japanese swords and pistols watching those movies when I was a kid.

I collected many model pistols and spent many hours with those guns after school.

But the other day, (I think I was in junior high school) after returning from school, I found all my collected guns were gone. I felt like my life was over. And it turned out to be my mother was the one who confiscated all my collections. And you know what? I could never see my collections again. Hahaha.

She was dead decades ago. I am sure she dumped them. How cruel she was! Hahaha. “Where is human right? Where is my right?” Hahaha.

Those were my treasures for 13 or 14 years of my entire life! The most important things next to my life but she ruthlessly dumped them! Hahaha.

I understand her feeling now. She wanted me to spend my youth and passion for something else other than toy guns. I think her decision was right.

Anyway, I recently bought gas air guns. See the attached pictures.

These are my new collections. “Colt Peace Maker” is the kind of gun I yearned after when I was a kid.

And I ordered a new one yesterday which is silver color of the same gun. The price is about the same around $380. Plus an option for walnut grip that cost about $35. So the total will be a little over $400.

As I watch Clint Eastwood’s macaroni western movies with those guns, I feel like my excitement is revived again when I was a kid.

I didn’t notice it when I was a kid, but Lee Van Cleef is as much of my favorite movie star as Clint Eastwood now.

Have a nice weekend!

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