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Caucasian CEO of Japanese company tells Japanese to stop kissing so much “white Caucasian ass”.

Bill Totten, the founder and president of K.K. Ashisuto, a successful Japanese software company. According to his site, he’s quite famous in Japan and has had time to write several books when he’s not working or giving speeches across the country. Here’s an excerpt from an article on the Ashisuto site, in which Totten shares some of his viewpoints:

On the lack of Japanese cultural awareness

The people who have been in power have been trying to ruin the country for 150 years. They have been saying let’s get out of Asia and become a Western society. They threw away Japanese clothes, they threw away Japanese teaching, basically everything, and all they do is kiss the white Caucasian ass. McArthur came in after the war and totally wiped out the teaching of Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism and the teaching of the Japanese classics. It was about the beginning of the Heisei period that the post-1945 generation came into power. They don’t know anything about Japan. They have the same racial features as Japanese. Inside they don’t know anything about Japan — the culture, the values, anything, so you’ve got a bunch of hollowed-out Japanese. It’s a product of the ‘out-of-Asia-into-Europe’ movement [which took place] right after Perry [Commander Perry whose arrival off Japan precipitated the opening up of Japan in the 19th century] came here. Now they express it in the color of their hair. You know, you’ve got dyed blonde Japanese.

For more on Bill Totten and his views, check out this page or his weblog.

[Hat tip to Ken Y-N]

26 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - May 25, 2007 at 6:09 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

the overthinker

Ah, those wonderful Japanese classics…the ones that taught that the Emperor was the divine descendent of the Gods and that the Japanese were all divine, and had the right to spread their control over Asia. Sorely missed, indeed. But don’t worry Bill – Nishio Kanji and Fujioka Nobukatsu are working hard to restore the Real Japan – aka the centralised authoritarian monolithic Japan that worships the Emperor as divine and suppresses unpatriotic views.

Sounds a lot like a more financially-astute Alex Kerr, bemoaning the loss of some idealistic “real” Japan that was the Japan he first knew.

toru

Oh, so you are one of the people labeling other people “militaristic nationalist war praising right-wingers” anything related “old-Japanese” that I talked below earlier this comment shows up. sorry about that (^^).

the overthinker

It really depends what the Old Japanese thing is. Totten dives directly into the deep end with bemoaning the loss of teaching of the classics as they did before MacArthur came. Perhaps he means stuff like the 国史概説 history text published by Mombusho in 1943. The opening paragraph (after the line showing the 万世一系 Imperial Lineage starting with Amaterasu) states “The Great Empire of Japan has been ruled from time immemorial by an eternal and unbroken line of Emperors since the Imperial Ancestor Amaterasu Omikami’s Divine Proclamation (jinchoku: that Jinmu was to rule the land)”. Good history there. Or could he mean the ritual of reading aloud the Imperial Rescript on Education at schools and the bowing towards the photos of the Emperor housed in a special shrine on the grounds? (Feel free to insert a rant about the US Pledge of Allegiance here if anyone likes.)

To give him his due, Totten doesn’t just talk about that – in the page referred to, he talks about wanting to wear kimono to work. But then again that is just weird (as his Japanese staff pointed out). One of the first places the kimono vanished from was the public workplace (the very first was the army of course). Talk about swimming against the current.

I do kinda envy him his house, though I think Kyoto one of the most over-hyped cities on the planet. A nice traditional minka would be very acceptable.

Come to think of it, perhaps he’s not Kerr. He sounds more like Lafcadio Hearn, especially in his more bitter Tokyo years.

Ying & Yang,The Flowerpot Man

Well, the Japanese had those classics for over 1,000 years and didn’t invade anyone. As a matter of fact, for most of its history Japan was a closed society that wanted as little to do with the outside world as possible. During the Edo period (when the teaching of Confucianist ideals and those very classics were at their peak), Japan had no conact with the outside world (except for one tiny island in Nagasaki). The Japanese didn’t become agresive towards other nations until it was forced to trade with the outside world by the U.S. Government. The Japanese upon seeing the superior military strength of the Western Nations that were forcing themselves upon Japan, had no choice but to arm itself and the rest is history.

LogicDefied

In 1592-1598 Japan, under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, did invade Korea. However, this campaign was unsuccessful. If it had been successful, China would have been invaded next. In fact, it was Hideyoshi’s goal to create a Japanese empire that would rule all of Asia.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/TOKJAPAN/TOYOTOMI.HTM
the overthinker

The teaching of the classics (Kojiki and Nihon Shoki) actually reached their peak in the prewar era. In the Edo period most peasants were barely aware of the Emperor at all, and cared less. One of the first things the new Meiji government had to do was remind the masses who (theoretically) ruled them.

Japan’s contacts with the outside world during the so-called ‘sakoku’ period (a term not used at the time) were more extensive than is commonly supposed, at least in the West. Dejima in Nagasaki was just one access point. There was also the Ryukyus, Tsushima, and Ezo (Hokkaido) for more or less official/unofficial contacts. The Shogunate kept a close eye on global events through the reports of the Dutch as well.

http://surfin-english.blogspot.com Jamie

I love cultural conservatives.

Listen dude. Culture is not static. It changes. Get over it. No Clavellian geisha for you. Not yours.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

It’s foreigners like you who ruined the Japans for folks like Me and Mr. Totten!

http://surfin-english.blogspot.com Jamie

Not my fault, dude. It’s Japanese women like my wife who refuse to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. How many times do I have to tell her that I want a footrub, a backrub, a “funrub”, and my dinner exactly three minutes after I walk through the door? How many times?!?

Sheesh. Women these days.

toru

Because of my ignorance, I’ve never heard of him/his company even though I’m a software engineer(aka geek) and news addict.

Anyway, Silicon Valley is the center of the earth ( or gravity as Linus Torvalds put it) if you are in IT industry today. But that does not mean kissing White’s ass. Japanese have been adapting the best of the best from all around the world(Chinese characters, technologies, and medicine) and refining and creating unique and often better things. Just like Isaac Newton once remarked he was “On the Shoulders Giants”.

But I’m, for one, afraid Japan may be losing the way use to be and what constituted Japanese.

The problem is that some people call someone like me or someone more conservatives “right-wingers” “nationalists praising war” yada yada yada… That’s really sad.

But I like Japan being not fanatic about anything. It’s good thing for Japan to be able to judge if something is a good thing or not rationally.

the overthinker

“what constituted Japanese” – that’s the rub there. What exactly “constitutes” being Japanese? I know people who say, for example, nothing is the same since the kimono went out of style as everyday wear. Yet virtually none of the uyoku in that video series posted earlier were wearing them. So many things are called “nihonjin no kokoro”.
ponta

what constitutes Japan—-kitarou ,d nezumiotoko(a rat man), nekomusume(cat woman) and Konakijijii.

Joking aside.
Theoretically there is no essence in Japanese culture but there is just a set of family resemblances through changes.
When there is a felt pressure from foreign countries, a felt need to change radically, there is reactionary on the part of some Japanese. (Note that it seems Totten wrote several books on international relation amid the frictions between Japan and the U.S in the 80′s.).
In the process of reactionary and progressive, Japan has been moving forward, without losing the “sense” of identities and continuity.
I am glad that Japan has been open enough to accept changes, preserving some tradition, what has constituted Japan..
Without reflecton on the traditon, there will be no national continuity: without accepting changes, a nation will not be able to surivive.

toru

“What exactly “constitutes” being Japanese?”

You got it. That’s the right question Japanese have to keep asking!

the overthinker

And what if there are 130,000,000 different answers? After all, 十人十色 is a Japanese aphorism…. The problem I see with people like this dude is that they have their answer and they want all Japanese to agree with it. Personally I agree with Kerr that if Kyoto still retained its traditional built heritage then it would be amazing – places like Prague and Vienna and Venice are. But it’s not up to us – not as we are foreigners, but as no one person can say to another “to be Japanese (or anything else) you have to XXXX.” My personal criteria for what determines a Japanese person? Passport.

Did my first comment (when there were no other comments) vanish into limbo or is it still being digested by the spam filter?

toru

By asking the right question, “What exactly “constitutes” being Japanese?” Japanese don’t just shamelessly copy stuff out of disneyland. But rather they tweak and refine and put some Japanese [fillintheblank or 十人十色] in many things. for example… anime.. (maybe)

Take Japanese pop music for example of kissing [fillintheblank or White or Black]‘s ass. It’s been dead for years imho. I just can’t stand it coming from Japanese TV and radio. I listen to Jazz blues and trance…

http://whaling Ericsson

they started out shamelessly copying Everything.
the tweak and refine came much latter..
China is doing the same thing now

http://myso-calledjapaneselife.blogspot.com/ Shari

The Japanese do what they have to do to remain an economic force in the world. If they don’t adapt and adopt, they can’t continue to sell to the lucrative western markets. The things this fellow is saying make no sense and display a shallow understanding not only of the Japanese people but also what it takes to succeed in business worldwide.

It’s almost as if he’s kissing Japanese ass in his assertions (catering to their vanity about traditional Japanese culture and uniqueness) rather than encouraging them to continue to do what has made them so successful in the past decades.

http://eleclutier.blogspot.com Elec

Totally agreed. Wish I could say more of value.
the overthinker

And note that the Americans didn’t adapt and adopt in many respects, and that is why General Motors has such a huge presence in Japan – or rather, doesn’t.

Nor

The reason why Japanese decided to westernize herself and to introduce modern technologies and military during the Meiji restoration period is to prevent the nation from becoming one of the European colonies. So, it was meant to kick caucasians’ ass out. This arrogant and ignorant guy needs to learn Japanese history before writing anything about Japan.

the overthinker

“The reason why Japanese decided to westernize herself and to introduce modern technologies and military during the Meiji restoration period is to prevent the nation from becoming one of the European colonies.”

And they succeeded brilliantly. It’s always rather difficult to critique Meiji-Taisho policies, as although we may reject them today as being at best authoritarian, at worst rather fascist, the plain fact is that they DID work: Japan DID become a first-rate power – to the extent that after WW1 the PM, Hara Takashi, was shot by a nutcase angry that Japan, in the Washington Conference, was placed behind the US and the UK. As Hata Ikuhiko points out, that meant Japan was merely rated third in the entire world. More powerful than France or Italy, for example.

Also let’s remember that when Japan kissed white butt, they did so to get behind them so they could boot the oyatoi gaikokujin out of the place as soon as possible, which they did – and still do in some ways (read Debito or Ivan Hall on English teachers at Japanese universities). Also, many of the reforms were introduced not as the White Man demanded them, but as Japanese men in power thought they would work as bait – anything to revise the unequal treaties and get back control of tariffs etc.
http://whaling Ericsson

like you know ?? right
he’s doing very well in Japan, about you. ?

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Guybrush

Oh yes, its not like japan never adapted to the technological, philosophical advancements from aboard like buddhism, confucianism, etc.

Excuse me, if got to continue my study of hanzi. I mean, kanji.
sahra

you pathetic people! Totten is completely dead-on,japan lost it’s identity a long time and it’s a pity because now it’s a poorly cloned version of America and Europe.
Charles Jannuzi

Totten looks like a relic from McArthur’s GHQ!

Something about his bio just doesn’t make any sense–actually, a lot.

Caucasian CEO of Japanese company tells Japanese to stop kissing so much “white Caucasian ass”.

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