Violence Among Japanese Youth

Contemporary Review, August, 2000 by Raymond Lamont-Brown

Wherein does the solution of all this lie? Deep within modem Japanese society it seems. Clues to the solution have already been mooted by such organisations as the Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organisations) and the Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers' Associations) who, amongst others, have published papers on the subject. By and large they cite ten areas where Japan might go forward into modern times and gain 'spiritual happiness' along the way.

Fundamentally these organisations argue, Japan needs to encourage the Japanese equivalent of 'back to basics', fostering the old traditions of respect, loyalty, duty, and putting country and family before self. Then comes a need to show originality and diversity in business, heterogeneity within action, and to hone up on judgement-making skills. The Japanese need to re-assess their information expertise in collecting information that once brought them Out of a medieval existence into the modern world.

Such re-evaluations are deemed necessary by the focus groups to help meet the demands from the new economic and social trends. But there is more that could help the hikikomori-youth. They, and the Japanese in general, it is averred, need to learn how to communicate more easily with their peers and the outside world; the term, 'outside world', suggests the Japanese need to get to grips with learning more languages. Advanced information technology, which the Japanese have at their fingertips, needs to be exploited to help the nation 'self-evaluate' itself. To old 'Japan hands' though, there is the feeling that what really has gone wrong with Japanese society is that it did not spend enough time getting the balance right between the mixture of old Japanese values and the demands of modernity.

Raymond Lamont-Brown is an author, broadcaster and Japanologist. Amongst his fifty-plus books, volumes on Japan's Kamikaze pilots and the Kempeitai military police have become bestsellers. His most recent title is Tutor to the Dragon Emperor, the life of Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston at the court of the last Emperor of China.