2022-11-30
The following is from a special roundtable discussion published in the January 2023 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL, released on November 25, 2022, under the title “I Want to Curse It to Death—Xi Jinping’s Dictatorship!”, featuring four participants: Tomoko Ako, Professor at the University of Tokyo; Lumei Tan, writer; Yi Yang, writer; and Yanzi Liu, scholar of Chinese literature.
As I have mentioned repeatedly, WiLL and Hanada cost just 980 yen despite being packed with substantive articles!
It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that they are currently the finest monthly magazines in the world.
This article is essential reading not only for every Japanese citizen but also for people throughout the world.
It is essential reading for everyone, young and old, men and women, and especially for all young people.
Some passages already foreshadowed the developments now taking place in China.
Emphasis within the text, other than in the headings, is mine.
Japan’s Media Are Being Bought Up
Ako
I recently visited Taiwan, and I felt that tensions were rising.
Taiwan has been accepting immigrants from Hong Kong since Hong Kong was brought under China’s influence through the National Security Law in 2020, but with talk of a possible conflict, people seem to be growing suspicious, wondering whether there might be spies among the immigrants.
Japan does not have that same sense of tension, but the number of Chinese spies here may increase in the future.
Liu
With the easing of entry restrictions, many Chinese people are coming to Japan.
Among them are people who seek to exploit Japan’s liberal democracy to acquire media outlets.
In particular, some publishing companies struggling with the publishing industry’s downturn may jump at vast sums of Chinese money.
If publishers are bought up, books glorifying Xi Jinping will be published in Japanese one after another.
An “invisible invasion” will advance from within, as with land and water sources in Hokkaido and with Okinawa.
Ako
A Cabinet Office public opinion survey on diplomacy released in January 2022 found that more than 40 percent of people aged eighteen to twenty-nine felt an affinity toward China.
While it is good for cultural and personal connections to deepen understanding of China and strengthen Japan-China relations, I do not think young people are paying sufficient attention to efforts to undermine democratic values.
Liu
You are absolutely right.
Furthermore, Japanese universities accept many Chinese international students, but an atmosphere of apprehension about the Chinese government’s wishes can often be felt at supposedly “objective” and “neutral” universities, research institutions, and academic societies.
If research is conducted that is inconvenient for China, instructions immediately go from the embassy to the international students, who overwhelm the university authorities through sheer numbers.
Researchers begin to practice “self-censorship” and find themselves having to express political positions in line with the Chinese government.
Without realizing it, they come under the influence of a dictatorship.
Yang
I came to Japan in 1987, and the atmosphere in Japan at that time was much freer than it is now, partly because it was the bubble era.
Over the past ten years, however, I have felt increasingly constrained, both culturally and in terms of expression, perhaps because of influence from China.
Newspaper reporters, freelance writers, and authors censor themselves as they write, thinking, “I should not say this.”
Why do people censor themselves when Japan does not have controls on speech like those in China?
As I pursue my writing, I always find myself thinking, “What a wasted opportunity for Japan.”
To be continued.