In a village of Musashi Province, there lived two woodcutters: Mosaku and Minokichi. At the time of which I am speaking, Mosaku was an old man; and Minokichi, his apprentice, was a lad of eighteen years. Every day they went together to a forest situated about five miles from their village. On the way to…
Prostitution in Japan: Soaplands, Slavery, and Family Obligation
Japan’s sex industry exists because of the narrow definition of prostitution found in the 1956 law that ended licensed prostitution in Japan. Namely, the law defines sex as penile-vaginal intercourse which allows the legal offering of most other sexual services (Koch, 2016). In turn, the existence of the sex industry encourages human trafficking of children…
Slavery and Japan
Japan, like nearly all nations. has a history of slavery. Many Western historians in the past believed the concept of freedom was imported to Japan from the West. This misplaced, Western-centric view states the West wrestled with its heritage of slavery and awoke to human rights and freedom before showing the rest of the world….
Considering Violent Media and Killing
People have a built-in resistance to killing, but this resistance can be overcome through various methods. During World War II, only 15-20% of American riflemen fired at the enemy. This included men faced with Japanese banzai charges and other situations. Most people would rather die than kill someone else (Grossman, 1995). People often bluster about…
Male Suicide and the Problem of Workism
Japan has seen a recent increase in male suicides in the wake of the pandemic. In September 2020, 705 working-age men between 20-50 years old killed themselves. This is up by 8.6% from last year. Likewise in August, the number was 6.6% higher than in 2019 (Suicide, 2020). The pandemic is driving non-regular workers and…
Anime is Not Japanese Culture
The other day I stumbled across various YouTube videos of people who felt like they were “becoming Japanese” because of their increasing love for sushi, anime, manga, and “other things Japanese.” At first, I thought it was just attention grabbing, but as I dug deeper, many weeaboo of all different ages seemed to follow this…