Yeah, the J-net was full of "personal responsibility" comments after the ISIS executions of Japanese citizens few years back.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Oh, bother.
Victim blaming is a long proud tradition in Japanese culture. Admittedly it's far from exclusive to Japanese culture. But I'd say blaming hostages for being kidnapped or executed is victim blaming on a whole new level.
Edited by M84 on Oct 26th 2018 at 1:46:45 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised
The general gist of it was they knew what the region was like and went there any way, thus any thing that happened was there fault and it was wrong to burdon others with doing any thing about it.
The irony is that most of it came from right wingers, who I would have thought if any thing would have loved the opportunity to beat drums of "look at this threat to our people"
I know that Koizumi and Abe are using the "no negotiation" stance in order to justify revising Article 9 for the JSDF.
Maybe this is something I can research on... considering my first draft got turned down.
More Koizumi really. In Abe's case, he has wanted to use JSDF more actively in things like hostage rescue and used the various dangers against Japanese nationals around Asia, Middle East and Africa to illustrate why.
I suspect both are using it to demonstrate how "not negotiating with terrorists" without some form hard power would be detrimental to Japan's credibility.
Edited by TerminusEst on Oct 26th 2018 at 12:14:43 PM
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
It is considering that they have "no negotiation" with the terrorists and yet, don't have the power projection like America and most of Europe has (Canada is there on a case by case basis).
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
There's a reason why molestation of women on trains is a much bigger problem in Japan than anywhere else; the only thing the government actually did about it was designated specific train cars as women-only, which is a roundabout way of saying "it's your fault if you ride in the mixed-gender cars".
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
To be fair, going into a war zone is something you do at a risk. I am not convinced that the "victim blaming" concept applies in this context.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It is when you take the criticism as far as these people did. When you're blaming hostages for their own executions...
Edited by M84 on Oct 26th 2018 at 11:18:05 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Well, of course. You have to actively choose to be so degenerate as to put your poor parents through such hardship and embarrassment. Let alone the whole street.
Fie on you, executed hostage/ rape victim/ overworked suicide/ pick any hellish fate. You should know better than to put everybody else through that! How could you! 
Edited by Euodiachloris on Oct 26th 2018 at 11:04:59 AM
Formerly G.G.
That is actually....really bizarre by my own biased Western standards.
Edited by GAP on Oct 27th 2018 at 3:52:55 AM
"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."
.....
So... I would like to learn more about 'Working in Japan' culture in a honest way. Thing is... most of the news I got about working in Japan is about how hellish the work culture was, like it will limit your time with your family, etc. It was like a horror story to shoo away people who thought Japan is wonderful and miraculous (mostly anime weeaboos). And it was all there is.
But still, the country became big anyway and the people prospered. So I thought there had to be some people who decided to venture through hell and succeed or lived happily anyway... right? Is there even a Salaryman that found happiness in working with their job in Japan (or a Salaryman that endured and then actually got a life improvement because of it)? Was the horror story overblown? Did someone ever survived the harsh workplace of Japan? I'd like to know. There has to be more than one side in a story, and I'm sure the sides aren't just the 'weeaboo fantasy' and 'Hell on Earth work system'...
I'm sure there must be some success stories out there. But as far as I know, the majority, leaning to perhaps the vast majority, of salarymen don't "survive". You work hard hours and stay overtime because that's the only proper thing to do. It's how you support your family, and it's more important that you support your family than that you spend time with them. For many of them, it's a point of pride that they work hard and sacrifice so their families don't have to... and if that means the kids grow up without a father and the wives (women are supposed to stay home and raise children, you see) see so little of their husbands that they can actually be afflicted by stress from living with an essential stranger once their husbands retire, that's just how it is.
There are people who are starting to push back against this, but work culture is still overwhelmingly dominated by a Showa-era mentality where you come in, you work, you keep your head down and do as you're told, and you're paid for it. It's fine on the surface - hard day's work, hard day's pay - but then you have things like huge overtime expectations, crunch time, people being forced to sleep at their desks or on the trains or in the streets... Aggressive Retsuko, the Netflix series, is actually pretty good as an indicator, even though it's probably exaggerated a bit.
Edited by RedSavant on Nov 26th 2018 at 8:49:22 AM
It's been fun.
Am I the only one who thinks "mandatory overtime" is an oxymoron?
If you have to be there, it's not overtime. You're just getting paid less per hour than your employers claim.
Yeah, basically. My contract includes 40 hours of overtime a month, and I get paid that whether I do it or not, but all that is really used for is to keep my salary low.
It's been fun.
It is officially and legally overtime. The work culture mandates that you be there regardless or face losing your job.
Edited by TerminusEst on Nov 27th 2018 at 6:04:32 AM
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Yeah, I know. That's how systemic abuse of technicalities work.
"Oh, it's not officially mandatory. You just get fired if you don't do it. Totally different."
The bottom line is that Japan is a collectivist culture that puts the needs of society (as percieved by traditionalists) before those of individuals.
Servant of the Omnissiah
Collectivism isn't that odd. Japan's extreme version of it most certainly is.
Korea is collectivist, so is China. So is Vietnam, India, Burma, Nepal and so on and so forth. Even by their standards, the near total conformity and collectivization of Japan is unnerving.
I get that different times and different places will do that, but come on.
I hold the secrets of the machine.
Face me now, Bitch!
It’s why Japanese Millenials are pretty much saying fuck it to the collectivism of society and are refusing to have children in an attempt to wait for the older folk to whither and die.
Watch Symphogear
It's the same in Korea from what I hear from exchange students. Apparently worse in some ways.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
vicarious
Wouldn’t be surprised
I guess I can consider myself fortunate that my Korean parents decided to live in US instead to raise me and brother. Don’t know if I could handle well Korean academics and work culture.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Face me now, Bitch!
@ Terminus Est: The Music Industry in Korea is even worse then in Japan, with many artists killing themselves there.
Watch Symphogear
Just something to consider once I heard another Japanese hostage was released:
Jumpei Yasuda was kidnapped in Syria in 2015, and spent more than three years in conditions he described as "hell."
He arrived back in Japan on Thursday night, greeted by his delighted wife and parents, who had brought him homemade Japanese food to celebrate.
But even before Yasuda set foot on Japanese soil, he was the target of angry criticism — mostly online — ranging from accusations of recklessness to claims that he was not even Japanese.
"He is disturbing society," wrote one Twitter user. "He's an anti-citizen," charged another.
Perhaps anticipating the criticism, Yasuda's only statement upon arrival, read to reporters by his wife Myu, was dominated by an apology.
"I apologise for causing such trouble and worry, but thanks to all of you, I was able to come home safely," he said.
The anger directed at Yasuda — author of books on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, whose reporting has appeared on Japanese television — is a far cry from the reception that journalism held hostage have received in other countries upon their release.
When four French journalists held by the Islamic State group in Syria were released, then-French president Francois Hollande met the men as they arrived home.
- 'It's your fault -
But in Japan, freed hostages have often met a mixed reception, with critics suggesting victims were are responsible for getting themselves kidnapped.
"They are the victims, they haven't broken the law, but they have to apologise. It's strange, but it's the mentality of a part of Japanese society," said Toshiro Terada, a professor of philosophy at Sophia University in Tokyo.
"The person is accused of having harmed society."
In one of the more shocking examples of the reaction, three Japanese men held hostage in Iraq and freed in 2004 arrived home to find people at the airport holding up banners reading "It's your fault."
Their kidnappers had threatened to burn them alive if Tokyo failed to withdraw non-combat troops stationed in southern Iraq.
But then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi refused the demands, and even declined to meet with the families of the hostages, a hardline position that was applauded in some quarters of Japanese society.
The government itself, supported by right-wing media, described the men as "irresponsible youths" for having ignored warnings to avoid travel to Iraq, then an active war zone.
One of the men, Noriaki Imai, said recently he received letters saying "die" or calling him "stupid."
"Online, the bashing lasted ten years," he said.
- 'Professional hostage' -
Yasuda has faced similar criticism for venturing to Syria, a country where several Japanese citizens were kidnapped and eventually executed.
Compounding the antagonism is the fact that Yasuda was kidnapped once before, in Iraq in 2004, prompting some to describe him as a "professional hostage."
And detractors have claimed Yasuda is not even Japanese, partly as the result of a bizarre hostage video showing him and another captive in Syria that emerged in August.
Despite speaking Japanese, he identified himself as a South Korean called "Omar", apparently after his kidnappers banned him from revealing his identity or nationality.
"This guy isn't even Japanese," wrote one Twitter user. "He should go back to his country, South Korea," added another.
A string of kidnappings of journalists in Syria at the height of the country's war exposed differences in how governments and publics responded.
Some governments paid ransoms, while others refused, and while countries celebrated their journalists as heroes, others quietly criticised them for taking unnecessary risks.
In Japan, mainstream media outlets and officials have largely avoided criticising Yasuda and other hostages, but the antipathy expressed online concerns journalists like Toru Tamakawa, a commentator for TV Asahi.
"In the case of Yasuda particularly, the argument that 'it's his fault' must be firmly rejected," he said this week.
"We need people who will risk their lives to go and get information on the ground."