[Mortimer Snavely]

I just heard about this. There's no remedy over there for this kind of thing, by the way. The bureaucrats respond only late in the day, at the last possible moment, when angy outsiders resort to force.

Question: Isn't the kid an American citizen by birth?

[Mortimer Snavely]

ka-PING!!

[Mortimer Snavely]

"angy" = "angry"

[sully777]

What a world! I just noticed that Japan is on a slow, steady march to rearm itself.

[Timesink]

Question: Isn't the kid an American citizen by birth?

Not if only his great grandfather was American. One of his actual parents would have to be as well.

[sourcery]

The teacher would be right at home at any American university--where old white males are seen as evil incarnate.

[AnnaZ]

Ping.

[The Red Zone]

According to the suit, between May and June this year the 46-year-old male teacher repeatedly told the boy, whose great-grandfather is an American, to commit suicide, saying such things as: "Your blood is filthy, jump from your condominium and die," and "Haven't you died yet? Make sure you do today." The teacher has since been suspended from work.

In Japanese culture this is 10x worse than it would be in American. Small nuances of dishonor can provoke great shame. Imagine abuse like this.

[4MORE-YEARS]

The teacher will be dealt with as the story has hit national press and has caused Japan "National Shame". On the other hand, there are thousands of students of Korean and Chinese heritage who get routinely get hassled by teachers and bullied by other students and do not get any press coverage and offers of help from 500 lawyers. Japan is a deeply racist society and there is no internal incentive to change anything unless the "shame" element is brought into play. BTW, the current governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, is the guy who wrote "The Japan that can say No" in the 80's (which supported a stronger and more nationalistic Japan which could free itself from the control of America by threatening to sell its military grade technology to the Soviet Union). Ishihara routinely espoused the superiority of the Japanese race and even made comments regarding 'The Bullying Of Asia By The Merciless American Jewish Trio' (he is referring to Albright, Rubin and Soros). By all accounts, he is still one of the most popular politicians in Japan.

[GeronL]

sounds like the direction our Public Schools are headed

[america-rules]

There are nutjobs in every country so don't take this as Japans normal routine.

I have a son who went to a Japanese school until 7th grade and now goes to an American college and he never had one problem because his blood was 50% non-pure !

My kid doesn't know what he has because the school he goes to has a couple hundred Japanese girls and he speaks and writs Japanese like a native :)

[Consort]

Could this be a "Shinto: Religion of Peace" thread?

[pbmaltzman]

So, I guess this is one more example that goes to show that "racism" and "xenophobia" aren't only the white man's problems, eh?

[DeinBabbes]

Well here in Germany i´ve an article(i think it was on spiegel online) about german exchange students being humiliated in the USA, because of our opposition against the Iraq war. According to this article they were harassed by their teachers and their guest families. A lot of them wanted to go back to Germany as soon as possible. Seems to me like rascism is a problem everywhere.

[CatoRenasci]

There is a Japanese proverb to the effect that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. The society is incredibly hierarchal and 'face' driven, and being anything other than 100% pure Japanese is seen as dishonorable. It's a very strange society. Lovely in many ways, and charming, brilliant and talented. But, very, very deeply racist. They and the Chinese are possibly the most racist peoples on the earth.

[ragnarocker]

I read this in the Japan Times paper edition last Thursday. Some Japanese still blame America for stopping their aggression in WWII. Many have no Christian virtue. They are slaves to their sadism and vengence.

The article just above this one was about a 23 year old Japanese who was caught when he brought his young kidnap victim to an internet cafe.

[E Rocc]

Someone teach the child (and the ignorant teacher) that W. Edwards Deming, still largely revered in Japan, wasn't 1/16th American he was 16/16ths American.

Indeed, the primary reason for the resurgence of Japanese industry wasn't their culture, it was General MacArthur buying into Deming's theories of management and statistical control. He requested that Japanese businessmen give Deming a hearing. Here their culture helped, MacArthur's "request" was taken as a virtual order since he was in charge.

Deming was right, the "Taylorism" used in American plants was 100% wrong when dealing with even a semi-educated workforce, and Japan caught up to and passed us. Once American companies began using Deming's principles, our own cultural advantages over Japan (innovation, willingness to think sideways, adaptability) kicked in and the difference shrank dramatically. Japanese manufacturers maintain American plants not only for shipping/political reasons, but because American workers are better at generating ideas for improvement.

-Eric

[aruanan]

Question: Isn't the kid an American citizen by birth?

Only if he was born in the United States or U.S. territories or born to American parents living outside the U.S.. Poor boy. Japan has as high a whacko rate in their schools as we do in ours. The difference is that ours tend to be fearful nincompoops (zero tolerance) and theirs tend to be sadists.

[yarddog]

I worked with Japanese Students for several Summers at a mountain resort. I really liked them but there were a few things which were not so endearing.

They would join in their own group and plot minor infractions and then do so as a group thinking they were fooling us.

The funny thing is the Americans caught them secretly and never did anything about it. The Japanese would have been humiliated it they knew that we knew they were not as clever as they thought.

[mikegi]

I've had several Asian friends (both Americans and ones from Japan/Singapore/etc.). They've all been nice folks. Of course, after reading this I'm suspicious that they were stabbing me in the back secretly!

[Spok]

ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS WHY ISN'T THIS TEACHER CHAIRING A DEPARTMENT AT HARVARD OR COLUMBIA?