While the elections mark a policy shift, many see that as just another spectacle. While the rise of social media and the resulting surge of populism are global trends, in Japan, this phenomenon takes on a unique and troubling form, as populist politics is intertwined with a silent democratic crisis of political apathy. Japanese culture has long valued the aesthetic of silence. We are a society that prides itself on 空気を読む, directly translated as “reading the air” or reticence and reserve, which is a form of high-context communication that prioritizes…
Posts published in “Japan”
Japan is spending five weeks mining the seafloor. It is a technological milestone — and a stress test for how nations balance geopolitics, clean energy demand, and environmental risk. The year 2010 was a reckoning for Japan’s economic security. On September 7, the Chinese fishing trawler Minjinyu 5179 refused an order by Japan’s coast guard to leave disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands, which are known in China as Diaoyu. The vessel then rammed two patrol boats, escalating a decades-long territorial feud. apan responded by arresting the captain, Zhan Qixiong,…