The Dark Side of Japan

This J-vologger, softypapa is the guy who lived in a rural area of Shizuoka prefecture. Usually he makes videos about his walks in his neigborhood or his hikes in nearby mountains, which feature little interesting things of the nature like insects or plants, or traditional cultures like small buddhist statues called Jizo.

However, today I just discovered he has the other channel in which he talks more than just those small peaceful subjects. And in this particular video, he talks about the dark side of Kwaii(means cute in Japanese), pedophiles in Japan and its culture.
Surelly any society and any culture have dark sides, just they come out in different ways. On this case of pedophiles, it is so easy to understand he is really concerned as he is a father of a very cute young daughter. Though I think culturally Japanese men got more tendency to be one, as you see in Otaku cultures, men who really attack young children are probably much less than in the US, I assume.

Why? because of the same reason that Japan has much smaller crime rate. In Japan, if you commit horrible crimes like that, not only you but your entire family can be ostracized by the community. I think the biggest morality in Japan is a fear of other people's eyes.
Especilly it is so now because of Japanese media are so relentless over criminals who commited sensational crimes and their families.
However, the very sad fact is that victims of sex crimes can be ridiculed by the society. That happens in the US as well since female victims of sex crimes can be seen as something soiled/dirty, but much more so in Japan, Therefore victims are victimized twice.

Japanese do not tolerate sex culture, but they just ignore or accept it as something inevitable since it is usually a male culture and Japan is a very conservative, male dominated society, well it is supposed to be, so women do not complain about it much.
I was raised in a very rural commuity in '70s and still I could see posters with nude women of porn films on my way to school, which is unthinkable in the US, even today. Definitely Japan and US have very different ways and ideas to handle sex cultures.

I am sure I would feel nervous if I were a father of a young daughter like him whenever I see something pedophiliac in public. But then what can I do about it? Hmmm, that is difficult.
Japanese do not speak out much politically until they are really pushed to the edge. But you have to know that that comes from the same culture makes a Japanese society so safe. They rather keep quiet than disturbing the peace of it even when speaking out seems to be necessary.
Even issues like domestic violence had been hidden tightly until the recent time because people felt/still feel too ashamed to talk about it.

I am glad to hear that this guy spoke out about the dark parts of Japanese society/culture, which rarely other J-vloggers do. Once I had a good laugh to hear one gaijin-vlogger said that Japanese were never rude, and I wrote a comment that he thought so simply as Japanese tend to treat gaijins better in general.
To be honest, I think Japanese, especially middle aged guys can be much ruder than any Americans can be.

But the possibility that your loved ones to be victimized in a sex crime is considerably smaller than in most of other countries, I guess.

Oh wait, wait, I just remembered something my childhood freind told me a few years ago, who has young kids. As last time I went back to my little town, I did see many children playing outside, I asked him and his wife if they thougt that was because of the low rate of child birth. They told me even in a small rural town, parents did not feel very easy to let their kids playing outside by themselves because of strange people. And their kids are boys, not girls.

Hmmmm, I still cannot believe that something like raping children can happen in Japan more often than in US. However, I probably do not know the reality of this subject since I have been away from Japan for so many years.
I should do some research before forming a opinion.

Meeting Tokyocooney

On April 26, I met Mr. Kevin Cooney aka Tokyocooney.

I do not remember exactly when I started watching his videos,
but at least like two years and half ago, I think.
At that time, still only a few Gaijins were doing
a vlog thing on YouTube though now there are too many to follow.
He is mosdef one of the pioneers of J-Vloggers
and still remaines as the very famous one
& one of the most popular ones if he is not THE MOST.


I am usually not the type who likes to attend this kind of meet-up.
However, I decided to do so as I have been a fan of his videos
and also because of not wanting to stay home
and be depressed that night
as my cat Maxi who had been my companion for 21 years
had passed a few days before this meet-up.

The place was a village bar called "Peculiar Bar",
which did not look peculiar at all to me
but looked like one of those
which had not changed for last 50 years or so.
and about ten people gathered there for this meet-up,
including three of his old friends,
and only one of them was female,
who Kevin claimed he had used to date.
I guess checking Gaijin's vlogs on YouTube
is a more male thing to do
or more like a male Otaku thing to be accurate maybe.

At first I felt like a little kid who met "Mr.Rogers" in person,
being puzzled about why he was not in sweet YouTube-land any more.
Actually the real Kevin talked & acted just like the one in YouTube
and told us many things about himself, Japan and J-vloggers.

Among all those subjects he talked about,
at one point, he fiercely defended Japan about whaling.
He said some kinds of whales were threaten to be extinct,
but some others were not.

Being an animal lover and anti-whaling person,
I simply do not believe there is any justifiable reason
for Japan to continue whaling.
Until like 150 years ago, a whale had been a gift from heaven
to poor fishermen villages in Japan.
And they used to catch one with simple woodden small boats
and very primitive tools like spears.
Naturally they could not
and did not have to catch whales more than that
since they did not have technologies
to preserve and transport them to distant city areas.

Now I do not know any Japanese who say that
they love to eat Whale meat at regular basis
as Japanese have too many other good things to eat
and as the matter of fact, they waste tons of food every day.
However, they still catch whales
because someone still can make money with them.

I wrote about this issue
on some Japanese magazine about two years ago,
and harshly criticised about their very low awareness of
political and social issues in general.
And one of my readers wrote that
I had been brain-washed by Americans, hahaha.

Anyway, I was actually more impressed by
how fiercely Kevin defended Japan about this issue
than his argument itself.
I could have a big urge to defend Japan
anytime I hear some U.S. media trashing Japan
and also I could have a big urge to defend America
anytime I hear Japanese unfairly criticising America,
as I feel I am somewhere in between of these two now.

Probably Kevin feels the same way as I do,
and also he wants to clarify some issues surrounding Japan
as he does not want his family and friends to wonder
why he is living in a horrible country
where people are not concerned about great animals like whales.
So for him, to defend Japan is really to defend himself
who chooses to live in Japan
which is still an odd place to choose to live
for most of Americans.

Also Kevin talked about how cruel American soldiers were
to Japanese soldiers during the pacific War,
and which cracked me up a little
because I saw a documentary just a few weeks ago on PBS,
which said the completely opposit things.

But again I felt his urge to defend Japan,
and he really was defending himself by doing so.

There were his two male friends,
one of them were his SKA band mate before he left for Japan,
and the other was the guy who lived in Japan for 8 years.

He said he did some odd jobs there
and one of them was a fake pastor.



Many young Japanese couples think that
getting married in church is romantic.
Therefore there is a demand and business for this kind of place,
a fake church-marriage hall, and a fake pastor.
Qualifications to be a fake pastor in Japan is

1) Being White
2) Looking like a pastor
3) Some acting ability

He said he made a good money as a fake pastor,
but I did not ask him then why he left Japan after 8 years
as I almost knew it.

Being a Gaijin means a being a novelty.
Most of Japanese are nice to Gaijins,
White or American/European Black people,
because Japanese see a glamorous images of
western cultures behind them,
which are exaggerated by irresponsible medias.

Some Gaijins learn to enjoy being a novelty,
but many of them don't.
That's why they leave Japan after a few years.
It is a simple fact that
we all have a desire to be accepted
as just a person by the society.

Then how come Kevin is staying there
even without being married with a Japanese girl,
which can be one big reason that some Gaijins stick to Japan.
I did not ask him but I could imagine that
one of the reasons is that he is doing well with his career.
while most of Gaijins are struggling
to go beyond teaching English and novelty type jobs.

Good for him!
and I am looking forward to seeing more of his fun videos!

So why do I watch J-Vloggers' videos?

I discovered some Gaijins in Japan doing vlog on YouTube
about a couple of years ago, I think.
At that time, not many people were doing that,
and almost no Japanese.
Japanese are usually too shy to do vlog-thing,
most of them do not like to show their face on internet.
That was a part of the reason
that my space and facebook did not become big in Japan.
Instead of them,
we do have a social networking site called "Mixi"
but most of their members never show their faces on it.

Anway, when I was watching some youtube videos,
I discovered some Gaijins in Japan doing vlog,
and through their related videos,
I discovered more and more J-vloggers like
tokyocooney(my fav), rodgerswan(I miss him), claytonian,
myargonauts, busankevin and helpmefindparents,
to just name a few.
And waching their videos became an addiction
within my internet-addiction,

Now I do not watch as much as I did before
because there are just too many of them now,
and I am a bit bored,
but still I watch most of my fav vloggers' videos.

Then I like to ask myself why I watch them
as I do love analysing things.

Just like many other Japanese who come to New York,
I came here as I was gravitated to the glamolous,
trendy, hip, chic and wild images of this city
which were grossly exaggerated
by irresponsible Japanese medias.
All Japanese who come to US believe
that they will be able to speak fluent English
within a few years,
and they will make freinds with lots of Americans,
possibly boyfriends and girlfriends too,
and will be able to do something exciting.
However, soon they will realize
how difficult these tasks really are for them.
And probably the most schocking thing is that
Americans are not really interested in making friends
with Asians who can speak only a little English.
As Japanese are deeply in love with American cultures,
this is a harsh reality to swallow for them.
Realizing how hard it is to be accepted by this society
as an Asian who speaks a little English
or speaks English with an accent
in addition to the fact how hard to build the career
outside of the Japanese community
which are Japanese companies and Japanese restaurants,
the majority of Japanese go back Japan
after about four years or so.

Of course, there are people like me
to stay here for much longer time.
Yet, on the back of my head,
there is a voice that keeps telling me
that I am not welcome in this society.

Well, I felt like
I was a misfit in Japanese society anyway,
and that was the one of the reasons
that I have been staying here for a long time.
So even I am a mistfit in US society,
there might be no difference.
Well, that is not true,
at least, in Japan nobody is against me
because of my race
or inability to speak English without accent.

Recently, two Japan related news broke out big
in major American medias,
one of them was Toyota's huge recall
and the other was the big protest rally in Tokyo
againt the American base in Okinawa.
Both of them are not positive news about Japan.
Even though in the internet world
and among younger generations,
Japanese culture seems to have become more popular
in recent years, still in Major US medias,
you rarely see anything about Japan, and if you see,
it is usually a negative thing like these
or something very stereo-type.
Bascially I am living in the society which is saying
that they do not like my kind much,
which definitely keeps making a negative impact on my mind,
and shakes my identitiy.

Then I discovered those J-vologgers,
they are Americans and other foreigners,
genuinely like Japan and intrested in Japanese cultures,
which can make me feel better I guess
because I feel like they are verifying me
when I watch them.

Some Japanese turn out to be kind of nationalistic
after they have been staying in US for a while,
like they start going to some Japanese cultural events
even though the original reason that they came to US
was that they were gravitated to the American culture.
I guess they like to rebuild their self esteem
which was destroyed somewhat by living in the society
where most of people do not have
any strong positive images about Japan.
If they go to Japanese cultural events
such as the screening of Japanese old films,
they can reconfirm how great Japanese cultures are
and they are the people who came from the country
produced those wonderfully sophisticated cultures.

I guess watching J-vloggers videos seems to help
to rebuild my self esteem,
I guess that's why I like to watch them.

Does it make sense?