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What foreigners don't understand about Japanese reality

As someone who is fully fluent in Japanese and has assimilated into day-to-day Japanese culture, it’s very obvious to me when a foreigner’s perception of Japanese culture is delusional. The vast majority of foreigners primarily understand Japanese culture through either Japanese art–anime, manga, games, literature, and movies–or academic Japanese studies as taught in foreign universities. In other words, they only know Japan through the top 1% of its artistic and intellectual brilliance and sophistication. As a result, they vastly overestimate the level of sophistication in everyday Japanese life.

If you know Japan solely through the top 1% of its intellectual sophistication, you’d be shocked by how unsophisticated and brain-dead everyday Japanese reality is. Consider this. Japan is a country that systematically discourages its people from thinking too deeply about its own past. The vast majority of Japanese people do not question how Japan’s wartime history and imperial legacy are presented in Japanese education and media. The vast majority of Japanese people think Japan was primarily a victim of war. It’s absolutely uncommon in Japan for people to know that Japan was an invader, colonizer, and extraordinary committer of war crimes. This is the state of understanding that the Japanese educational system wants. If people are encouraged to reflect a bit deeper on their own history and culture, all of this delusion will fall apart. To keep this mass delusion alive, it’s basically required in Japan that you consistently refuse to think too deeply about your own history and culture. In Japan, “I don’t know too much about these things” is the polite and socially appropriate response to questions regarding Japanese history. This is a culture where the “correct” mindset about its own history is “sorry I don’t know too much.” In most situations outside niche environments like academia and human rights activists, it’s absolutely inappropriate and impolite to discuss the dark truths of Japanese wartime history. If you insist on talking about these topics, most Japanese people will find ways to end the conversation and avoid you in the future.

If you come to Japan all excited to discuss sophisticated things like the legacy of the Meiji Restoration and Japan’s colonial expansion into Southeast Asia, you’d find that outside very specific niches like academia and higher education, the vast majority of people would just be like “sorry I don’t know much about these things.” As a foreigner, if you have read books on modern Japanese history or watched documentaries, you’re probably more knowledgeable about modern Japan than the vast majority of Japanese people. Most of what you know about Modern Japan 101 is taboo knowledge in Japan that people are systematically discouraged from knowing.

In Japan, outside special niches like academia, politics, and journalism, it's very uncommon to have deeper discussions of global affairs. Since modern history in general is taboo, discussion of global affairs is also uncommon by extension. After all, what kind of sophisticated discussion about global affairs can you have if you don't see any problem in thinking that Japan was an innocent victim in WW2? Personally, I think Japan’s cover-up of its wartime history and imperial legacy has deprived Japanese people of the ability to understand all other aspects of world history and global affairs, which contributes to that thick wall separating Japan and the rest of the world. Nothing about the world makes any sense when you are forbidden to know the basic truth about your own history, especially if the version of history you know is so bizarrely contradictory to reality.

In Japan, Japanese history and world history are taught as separate subjects and presented as more or less unrelated. WW2 is taught as world history, and Pacific War is taught as Japanese history. Many Japanese consider the Pacific War and WW2 as separate topics and don't see the connections. If you ask Japanese people about Japan's role in WW2, many of them get confused since the WW2 is world history, not Japanese history. Most Japanese consider Fascism and colonialism to be world history topics and unrelated to Japanese history. If you try to discuss Japanese history in relation to Fascism and colonialism in Japan, most people would think you are crazy.

In Japanese K12, Japanese wartime history is taught as mainly 3 topics: war with Russia, war with China, and the Pacific War. Things like the colonization of Korea, Taiwan, and Okinawa are not taught. In Japanese books and media, words like "invasion" and "colonization" are virtually never used to describe Japanese actions. Instead of saying "Japan invaded/colonized a country," Japanese books and media would say something more neutral-sounding like "Japan advanced into this region" or "Japan was involved in a war with this country." Japanese actions in war are systematically portrayed as necessary for self-defense. Most Japanese people understand Japan's role in war as a victim who was forced to defend itself, and they will walk away if you try to convince them otherwise.

The next time you get all excited about coming to Japan and having intellectual discussions, just remember that you will be mostly to speaking to people who have been systematically encouraged to not think too deeply about many things. But I guess that's not noticeable for most foreigners since their Japanese isn't nearly good enough for that to be a problem. This problem will become noticeable once your Japanese is good enough to discuss history and global affairs.

This video is an accurate representation of the level of knowledge and intellectual sophistication you will find in everyday Japan regarding history and world affairs
https://youtu.be/f3_UTWAPKYs?si=RBE5K...