Published on 2017-02-17.
An NHK documentary on China’s severe air pollution revealed not only unlivable environmental conditions but also astonishingly cold administrative responses.
Local authorities dismissed citizens’ complaints as “not our problem,” and the behavior of a court receptionist was something unimaginable in any Japanese public institution.
The author argues that expressions like “Japan should die,” spread online and used politically by opposition parties and the media, do not reflect Japanese culture but stem from traditions in China and the Korean Peninsula.
The essay concludes that such condemnation should be directed not at Japan but at China, a grave human-rights violator that should be immediately brought before the United Nations.

2017-02-17

The other day, I watched a recorded NHK special on the people suffering from China’s air pollution and the reality of the country.
As I have mentioned many times, the severity of China’s air pollution is far beyond a level in which human beings can live.
It is said that petitions and protests concerning air pollution exceed one million cases.
What astonished me was the response of the administrative offices.
The local authorities refused to deal with the issue, saying it was not their problem.
The behavior of the woman at the court reception desk was something that would shock every Japanese person.
It is no exaggeration to say that there is not a single person in any Japanese government office who would behave in such a manner.
The person who wrote “Japan should die” on the internet because their child failed to win a place in a nursery school was certainly not a normal Japanese.
They are likely from a culture with such traditions—China or the Korean Peninsula.
The female Diet members of the Democratic Party who gleefully used this phrase to attack the government, and the media who joyfully selected such a base expression as last year’s buzzword of the year—
It is not Japan that you should be criticizing.
You should direct such words immediately at countries like China.
At the same time, you should go to the United Nations at once and accuse the world’s most egregious human-rights violator of its actions.