Newsletter No. 209
March 9, 2006

 

THE UNITED STATES PUSHES JAPAN DOWN THE ROAD OF NATIONALISM AND AUTHORITARIANISM
By Michael Penn

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole has been visiting Japan. His message: Japan needs to “get tough” on terrorism and pass new laws like the American “Patriot Act.”

He was quoted as follows: “I think not only Japan but also the U.S. and our allies who are engaged in the fight against terrorism will benefit any time a country passes a strong anti-terrorism law… If it is a Patriot Act-type law, I cannot see any way but for all democracies to benefit, primarily because of the ability to share intelligence in a way that may be precluded at present… The (current Japanese) law does not address terrorism matters, and it will be clearly beneficial if there was a wiretapping law that can be used in terrorism investigations.”

Who is John Pistole? He has been the Number Two man at the FBI since October 2004. He has worked mostly on American and European affairs in his past career, which began in 1983. After 9.11 he worked in the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, eventually rising to the office of Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence.

He is also a serious evangelical Christian. I found the following quotes from him on the website of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU): “I’ve got the best job in the FBI, in government, in all the country. It’s a direct result of God’s leading, guiding and opening doors. I sense his strength and empowerment every day because I don’t think I could do this job alone… My (passion is my) service to God, feeling like I’m working within his will. My family is also my passion, and frankly, there’s not much time for anything else.”

Now this man has come to Japan to give his advice to the Justice Ministry and the Police Agency about how to deal with international terrorism.

Is Mr. Pistole an honest and well-intentioned man? My guess is that he probably is. But is he a wise man? Does he know anything at all about the Japanese political and social context? My guess is that he knows next to nothing about Japan.

I’ve written on other occasions that one of the insights I’ve gained from my study of history is that the leading power or group of powers set the tone for any historical age. When the leading power(s) are open and generous, that openness tends to spread to the nearby smaller countries as well. However, when the leading power(s) are brutal, suspicious, and uncompromising, those characteristics tend to spread as well.

Over the years, the United States has generally been more benevolent than most other empires, but especially with the rise of the neoconservatives and the cynical exploitation of the 9.11 tragedy, the positive character of US power has now all but vanished. Traces of the virtuous republic of Jefferson, Madison, and Adams are becoming harder and harder to find. The political behavior of America today is becoming difficult to distinguish from that of the Roman Empire, the France of Napoleon I, or Victorian Britain. We Americans are now much closer to King George III and the Redcoats than we are to the ragtag rebels who sang “The World Turned Upside Down.”

My great annoyance with John Pistole’s message in Tokyo is that it is using America’s power and influence to push Japan in exactly the wrong direction. Japan -- in my view -- is not a very mature, democratic country. While there are indeed free elections, at a social and cultural level Japanese are often obsessed with order and conformity. This is not a society that encourages strong individualism or speaking truth to power.

A recent Kyodo News article tried to analyze why a hit play about the Iraq War called “Stuff Happens” met such an indifferent response in Tokyo even though it was a huge hit in London. Commentators noted how most Japanese simply don’t participate in politics and tend to avoid political topics in their lives. Media analyst Yutaka Murakami noted: “Events with serious themes are unlikely to catch on in the current mood in society… People who feel society is becoming unstable tend to dislike political issues.”

When I read comments like this, I sometimes think of another point made by Carl Trocki in a book about 19th century Singapore: “Depoliticized communities are like AIDS victims, they have no host defense mechanisms against the political cancer of tyranny.”

What FBI Deputy Director Pistole does not understand is that enhancing the power of the Japanese central government may eventually lead -- not to more security -- but to far less. Japan is not America. (In fact, I’m no longer sure if America is still America). The writers of the Federalist Papers understood a truth that has been long forgotten in Washington: Powers bestowed to the central government are unlikely to ever be given up again, even when times change for the better. Bureaucracies are ever competing to amass more and more power, and it can be a very difficult thing to pry a power away from them once it has been bestowed.

In the case of Japan, there is already some evidence that “antiterrorism” policy can easily bleed into anti-foreignism and chauvinistic nationalism that can cause trouble with China and other regional powers.

UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene just released a report stating that “racial discrimination and xenophobia do exist in Japan… the government and Diet should as a matter of urgency proceed to the adoption of a national law against racism.” Racism is currently not illegal in Japan under domestic law.

Japanese “antiterrorism” has been linked to these issues directly by activists for foreign and minority rights in the country. Said President of the Japan Chapter of the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism Kinhide Mushakoji in a recent AP article: “The Japanese government is getting more and more racist and more and more anti-foreign, but there is a realization that Japan cannot remain closed to foreigners.” What is the source of this darkening environment? “The activists said the bedrock xenophobia of Japanese society was getting worse, fueled in part by fear of foreign terrorists, the growing conservatism of the government and worries about foreigner-linked crime.”

Personally, as I have argued before, I also think that the plummeting Japan-China and Japan-Korea relationships are strongly linked to Tokyo’s decision to align its policies tightly to the US in the wake of the 9.11 terrorist attacks.

Even at the local level in Fukuoka Prefecture I am seeing some changes. On transportation systems there are now some announcements warning people about suspicious packages and bags. On the Kitakyushu monorail, there are posters from the Fukuoka Prefectural Police saying “NO TERROR” and with a message in Japanese asking citizens to report to the police whenever they think someone might be engaged in terrorist activities.

Today I visited the Kokura Police Station and asked them if I could have a copy of that poster. In a very friendly manner, the young officer in charge of counterterrorism came down directly to meet me and provided me with about ten copies. He also gave me little tissue packages with the same “NO TERROR” slogan. I asked him why the poster was mostly in Japanese, a language that very few international terrorists are likely to read. He gave a sheepish grin but didn’t really have an answer.

The answer, of course, is that the little posters and tissue packages will have absolutely no effect on the terrorists themselves. In any case, I don’t believe that Usama bin Ladin is hiding in his cave plotting how to blow up the Kitakyushu monorail. The message is written in Japanese, and is meant only for the Japanese public. By creating fear and uncertainty about the foreign threat, rightwing politicians, police agencies, and other security-oriented bureaucracies can enhance their influence and their budgets, and prove their relevance to the ordinary Japanese taxpayer.

One of the reasons I came to live in Japan nine years ago was because I wanted to escape the American media cocoon and breathe the air of freedom once again. Japanese indifference has the advantage of allowing the foreigner to go about his or her business with little difficulty, so long as you have gainful employment. It would be a shame if emissaries from the Land of Liberty should come to this country and teach the Japanese how to do more wiretapping, more surveillance, and more imprisoning simply to meet the new “international standard.”

Inadvertently, all this will do is to make Japan even more xenophobic, and more assertive in its nationalism. It will also enhance the forces of Japanese authoritarianism. Those who strive for perfect national security are in fact only creating individual insecurity from state power, and they are also setting the stage for something far worse than acts of terrorism -- national wars that could kill millions.