New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign

As Japan’s economy stagnates, young men stuck in menial jobs use the internet to plan demonstrations against foreign influences. Their “main purpose seems to be venting frustration, both about Japan’s diminished stature and in their own personal economic difficulties,” explains Martin Fackler for the New York Times. The discontents resent rising unemployment and lack of global respect for Japan and follow internet conspiracy theories that China, the US and Japanese media plot against Japan. The largest group – Zaitokukai or the Citizens Group That Will Not Forgive Special Privileges for Koreans in Japan – studies videos of the US Tea Party movement to picket screenings of US films critical of Japanese hunting of dolphins and use of a public park by Korean schoolchildren. So far, the internet bullies avoid violence, merely seeking attention with loud, angry protests to position themselves and their wealthy nation as victims of a global economy. – YaleGlobal