The basic premise is that diversity is recognized as âa goal to be achieved by becoming as one nation⌠We have not escaped from the Showa paradigm of catch-up, and somewhere in there is the feeling that âJapan is a country that is behind the West and is ashamed of itself. If we donât catch up with the rules of the new era soon, we will be the laughing stock of the international community!â This is a strong filter that is being applied. src
Context, long but interesting flow, so note
@gjmorley: Please excuse me for a personal matter that is completely removed from international and social affairs. I have recently been fortunate enough to have a series of interviews where I am being interviewed about the period leading up to high school graduation. Perhaps the intention of the interviews is to find hints in the ongoing diversity in Japan. A certain problem frequently arises here.
gjmorley: One pattern is âJapan is a society that lags behind in diversity and is full of discrimination. Japan is behind the West. We need to fix it. Mr. Morley, tell us how we are discriminated against and how we can fix itâ is the framework. To be honest, I am fed up with this framework. The basic premise is that diversity is perceived as âa goal to be achieved by the whole nation. We have not escaped from the catch-up Showa paradigm, and there is a feeling somewhere that âJapan is a country that lags behind the West and is ashamed of itself. If we donât catch up with the rules of the new era soon, we will be the laughing stock of the international community!â Japan must catch up with the rules of the new era as soon as possible, or else it will be the laughing stock of the international community!
gjmorley: diversity is literally the idea that everyoneâs values and goals can be different. It means moving away from the âhappiness model that points everyone in one direction,â as there is a growing realization that uniform nationalism alone is not sustainable, including for the environment, where people of various attributes who are relegated to the margins are disadvantaged for unreasonable reasons while the interests of an elite class that fulfills national policy are guaranteed! . Therefore, âSuccessful people teach that the SDGs are the key to survival in the next eraâ is self-contradictory. I believe that the SDGs are oriented toward gradually shifting the focus to what one really wants to do, and moving away from mass production, mass consumption, dependence on excessive supply chains, and dependence on labor, resources, and energy, rather than converging on âexternal criteriaâ such as education, titles, and income to determine what constitutes success. I believe that âdecarbonizationâ is not only about climate change. Decarbonizationâ is not a linear measure focused solely on climate change, but an attempt to organically shift values and economic structures.
gjmorley: in other words, there is no simple âjusticeâ that says âthis is the solutionâ. There is no example for all of us to aim for. But inspiring examples keep coming up. That is what is new. Instead of a methodology of simplifying complex situations to get to the essence, we need to accept complex things as they are.
gjmorley: Iâve felt as Iâve been asked the same genre of questions over and over again. (1) Assumption that I am a supreme success story and a role model because I was accepted at Tokyo University and Harvard, etc. at the same time. (2) The assumption that everything that has happened to me has been carried through in one thick story, a historical name, so to speak, and that there is a definite cause and effect relationship. (3) It is possible to extract rules of thumb from what I have accomplished or what has gone wrong, and it is full of valuable material, especially for parents of students taking entrance examsâŚetc. I am sensing a tendency for assumptions and assumptions to be made in the course of the interview process.
gjmorley: âI suffered between the cultures of Japan and America. I was discriminated against. But I fought on, and I won. In the process of digitizing the original interview articles and scrapbooks from the 1980s to the present, I have found this pattern. This pattern emerged clearly in the process of digitizing the original interview articles and scrapbooks from the 1980s to the present. What we want to clear up here is: âThe decision to simultaneously apply to difficult universities in Japan and the U.S. was the result of a complex combination of various factors. âAs an example, in 1978, a statewide referendum in California resulted in a pay cut for public employees in exchange for a property tax cut, and public high school teachers went on strike en masse, resulting in months of chaos. In other words, classrooms collapsed âfrom the topâ. Some teachers took it out on their students, with classes almost entirely self-study. âThereupon, he convinced his parents that he wanted to take this opportunity to go back to school in Japan, and returned to a preparatory school in Hiroshima City. âBut dating in Hiroshima, dancing at discos, and going to arcade games (all of which are fine by U.S. standards. However, in the U.S., a gymnasium became a disco every Friday, and there was no corresponding venue in Japan) were considered problematic. âMarked because the classmates he hung out with were mainly âdelinquentsâ. They were considered to be disruptive to public morals and were advised to leave school voluntarily. âWhen the students were moved to a school in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, the local vice principal contacted the school in Hiroshima to establish a more thorough monitoring system. The light music club was also expelled, with no explanation from the school. âThe only place I could go to play was in the distant city of Toyama. I was playing in a band there, but the band I was in was a second or third string to the flowery âFUNXâ band, not particularly charismatic, just a bunch of cocky high school kids, but not over the top in terms of enthusiasm for their favorite bands. In 1980, there were many local band competitions such as Yamahaâs âPopconâ and similar contests, but no matter which one we entered, we failed to qualify from the very beginning and were always criticized as ânot good enough on our instruments and not interesting enough in our ideas. However, the charismatic local band âFUNXâ was aggressive toward these judges, which gave us momentum, and we thought we were better than them. The members of the band were having a good time with each other, and one day an idea came to them: âWouldnât it be fun if I applied to the University of Tokyo and got in? The idea came to them and they all said, âOh, yes, yes, yes. If Ora man gets through Tokyo University, Ora will be in big trouble, too. As a result, the story became a straight line to the University of Tokyo. âAt that point, as it happened, I had become quite bilingual as I traveled back and forth between Japan and the United States. It is rare to find international school students of the same generation who have reached the level of being able to read and write Kanji characters. Japanese was not that important, and the international schools were there as a perch from which they would eventually return to their home countries. In short, I was a Japanophile and patriot of U.S. citizenship who took the trouble to learn low-status Japanese. To get back to my original point, since I was bilingual, I could get high scores on English exams in both reading and grammar without much effort. However, I am not good at questions like âdefinite articleâ and âpresent continuous tenseâ which are converted once into Japanese and then reconverted into English. So, anyway, with a little effort, you can reach a perfect score in both types of English examinations. On the other hand, the average school competitor spends one or two hours every day on English. This resource floats away for me. So I converted my vocabulary book (that thing that looks like a strip of paper like a key chain) for memorizing English words into a vocabulary book for ancient and Chinese texts. Also, the top three questions on the science and math exam were set up to be as difficult as the appearance of a boss character; it took a lot of hard work to go from a score of 79 to 86 or higher. Many of my classmates lost hours of sleep trying to get two of those last three questions. However, if you pull it back, the final evaluation is the sum of all subjects, so for me, I cut out wasting study time by taking it easy in English and securing an extra 20 points in the sum of the ancient and Chinese literature, while also splitting my time by saying that it would be good if I could get even 0.5 (partial points) on one of the three most difficult questions in science and mathematics. I also floated the time to listen to new wave and punk cassettes in a frenzy. However, during the period of the final push, I refrained from band activities and concentrated on my work. This strategy proved to be a âwinner,â and his ranking in the school rose rapidly. At this time, the vice principal of the life guidance department, who had been monitoring him, praised him, and he began to study harder and harder. I was thinking âidiotâ to the vice principal. And, at that time, my parents became passionate about another matter: âIf you are able to solve such difficult Japanese exam questions, doesnât that mean that you have cleared the line to pass the Ivy League in the U.S.?â That was that. My parents âpersuadedâ me to create a âself-promotional portfolio,â which is an application for admission to an American university, even though I had no idea that such a university as Harvard University even existed. This was a collaborative effort, with my parents producing the ideas and phrasing, and me writing the final product in my own handwriting. Even this workflow seemed like a âcheat,â but I later heard from a classmate who had been accepted to Harvard that this was a common practice. As for myself, I thought, âHmm, Harvard, huh? Well, I donât care if I go to college or not, but if you want me to do it, Iâll go with you. It was more important for me to go straight to the University of Tokyo as a fireworks display for a local band. I was surprised to see that I got a perfect score in science and mathematics on the American Common Achievement Test (SAT and Achievement Test, not the first and second rounds). This surprised even me. But perhaps what should have surprised me was the ease of the questions. Almost all the questions could be understood by those with average academic ability in Japan. The question is, if you take the exam in English, will you be able to understand the questions in the first place? Anyway, I was in the top few percent in the U.S. when I passed the common exam. However, since I was not living in English, I made many mistakes in English grammar, which is the ânational language. So, at the end of the year, I pushed hard before the first round of the common entrance exam, and I was living a tight life. After the common first round, you will receive a letter of acceptance from Harvard under the âEarly Action Program,â or early acceptance/rejection window. At this point, the local newspaper and TV visited to cover the event. I was photographed with my electric guitar out, saying, âOh, my strategy is paying off. After that, I went to the University of Tokyoâs Hongo Campus for the second round of the examination. After the exams were over, he returned to his local band with a sense of abandon. A small festival featuring high school bands was scheduled, and he was enthusiastic about practicing. The band was in a friendly atmosphere, saying, âWe did a good job,â as the festival approached. Then, just before the festival, the announcement of the acceptance to the University of Tokyo came. A phone call from a newspaper reporter informed the band that they had been accepted. The local community was in an uproar. The band performed at a high school band festival in Toyama City. He was in a groove and said, âI went to the University of Tokyo! But I donât care, come on!â on stage. It was an experience like clearing one stage of my life. I am sorry that I have been going on and on about personal matters. It is probably unimportant, so you may move on to something else of more value. I am about to give a lecture in Kumamoto City, so I am going to use part of the above story as it is. Iâm going to give a lecture in Kumamoto City, so Iâm going to use a part of the above talk. I will continue this talk after this. I will try to complete the story briefly. After the festival in Toyama City, we received a request from Nitteleâs âLook Look Helloâ to appear on their program. After some strong negotiations, we obtained the condition that the band would also appear with us. After a strong negotiation, the band was granted the condition to appear with us. However, the leader of the band called me and told me, âWe just had a meeting and decided to expel you. The band leader told us, âWe have just had a meeting and decided to expel you from the band⌠You have become so famous both locally and nationally that you will only be regarded as âMauryâs bandâ even if we play together in the future. The breakdown. I was stunned. Eventually, she went to Tokyo to appear on âLook Look Lookâ alone, and had to do the performance alone, which was supposed to include a band, by dodging answers to questions as best she could and mixing lyrics from the band âFrictionâ into her remarks. After the broadcast, the editor of the girl-oriented magazine âPetit Sevenâ contacted me for an interview. After seeing the article in the magazine, the producer Sakai of CBS/Sony contacted me and asked me to audition. There are more twists and turns after this, but I will return to the first theme. The reporters covering the event said, âI suffered between Japan and the United States. I fought against discrimination and the retarded education system in Japanese society and passed the double. âThis is an example of the diversity to come. It is hard to come with the attitude of âPlease scold the Japanese people. Even if you just look at the flow of what I have written so far, there were many coincidences and parts that flowed on their own without my being able to organize them at all. If I wanted to be an elite, I would not have gone to Japanese elementary schools in the first place, and if I wanted to be an âhonor student,â I would have disguised myself as one in order to resist the fuck of the adults who judged, monitored, and controlled me after I was unfairly treated as a âdelinquentâ (from my perspective) in Hiroshima⌠Who in the world would be able to duplicate such a technique? And this uniqueness is what embodies diversity. There are parts that are helpful, but there are many parts that are not, and imitation is not enough. Furthermore, being accepted to Tokyo University and Harvard has triggered a fetishism among many adults in Japan, and if done poorly, it has created a trend where people can âeat on academic credentials alone. But what I really want you to cover is. â Why did you love Japanese language and Japan so much? â Did you follow through on your aspiration to be in a band, regardless of whether you went to Tokyo University or Harvard? â What did you see as a person through this tumultuous experience? . This is what I want to share with the younger generation in particular. So from now on, I have decided to prepare a chronological timeline. I just filled it in all the way on the bullet train and made it look like a floor plan, so if you interview me, please donât stick to the âWhy did you transfer to a Japanese school?â or âWhy did you take the entrance exam?â or âWhich do you prefer, Japan or America?â themes, but face me as an individual, a sometimes troubled guy but a good guy. I would be very happy if you could see me as an individual, a good guy who is sometimes in trouble. Everyone is different, but you have the right to live your true self. Thatâs all.
This page is auto-translated from /nishio/ĺ˝ć°ä¸ä¸¸ă¨ăŞăŁăŚĺ¤ć§ć§ăéć using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. Iâm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.