As The Japan Times reported, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga created the role in early February, taking after the U.K., which created its own such role in 2018.
Please read the second paragraph of the article before this thread turns into weird orientalism.
I'm not saying either place is fine.
I'm just saying that the internet doesn't need another thread of "Japan so weird and different" anecdotes repeated from a friend of a friend who watches a (white, not Japanese speaking) YouTuber who lives in Japan.
Is it Orientalist to point out that Japan and South Korea have both modernized rapidly under capitalist economic systems with strong Western influence, and both seem to have really unhappy populations?
Like, the region has some problems. There's a lot of overlap with other developed nations, but also some unique circumstances and challenges.
Is it Orientalist to point out that Japan and South Korea have both modernized rapidly under capitalist economic systems with strong Western influence, and both seem to have really unhappy populations?
It's Orientalist to fixate on Japan as a though its "loneliness culture" is some kind of aberration from the western capitalist mean.
The article opens and closes with tags that suggest this isn't uniquely Japanese, but the headline and much of the body of the article seem to call out Japan as uniquely bad.
Not to mention
The pandemic has worsened feelings of isolation globally. In the U.S., the Clark County School District in Nevada partially reopened schools in response to a surge of student suicides during the pandemic, with the number of student suicides doubling over the previous year.
The whole thing still feels like treating "barn-door-itis" long after the horse has escaped. We really are just turning into an empire of eulogies, at this rate.
I mean america would/will just deal with this by making it illegal to be lonely
Give the NYPD a mandate to shoot lonely looking people on sight.
Then you can use some gig app to order a fake friend — who carries official ID recognised by law, but it still randomly doesn't work and they get shot by cops —to walk around with you so you don't get shot.
Japan rated the highest in terms people aged 60 or older who felt they had no one to turn to in times of need, with 16 percent of people saying so, compared with 13 percent in the U.S.
It's not really that different in the US
Japan also has more elderly as a portion of the population.
I think the current strategy is to leverage the privatized pharmaceutical industry and turn anti-depressants into a big new revenue stream.
"Minister of Loneliness" is peak liberal application of theory, bandaid solutions filtered through unnecessary institutions.
I don't think you're wrong but I don't think this is any worse than the American, conservative response which is deny that people are lonely and then say even if they are it's not the gubbermint's business to fix it.
The American solution is to tell you to shop more, but also to save more, then whine about how our family values have decayed.
Geez it's almost like literally working people to death gives them little time to bond with people in a meaningful way.
YaaAAAaayY CaPiTALIsm RoCks GuYs :agony-consuming:
Of course it is, its neoliberalism.
But that said, the leadership is so old and entrenched they would probably produce the same results even if they were trying to create a social democracy.
Abe was seen by some as being somewhat of a populist radical because he wanted to increase taxes, public spending, and get women into the workforce.
It seems like it's a common problem in every stable society - old people get the reigns, freeze the next generation out, and double down as things get worse. Even neoliberalism wouldn't be as bad as it is (granted, it would still be pretty bad) if there was a mechanism to churn people out and replace them at fixed intervals - we might get libs who at least understand how the internet works, for example.
Japan actually used to have forced retirement at 65 for this exact reason, to prevent new salarymen from getting stuck in middle management as fossils ran every company into the ground. Now it's been turned into an optional retirement at 70, and Abe (who is 66 himself) wants to push it to 75 as the number of seniors forced to work because their pensions don't pay enough anymore increases.
Unfortunately, the old people have found a way around this by retiring to become behind the scenes power brokers. Kind of like Obama in the last election, except more geriatric.
The most interesting thing is all these people are getting old enough that they are going to start dying very soon. I regret always seeing people pass, but I think Japan is going to have one of the most dramatic transformations over the next decade because of it because of how sharp that population curve is compared to the rest of the world.
get women into the workforce.
Imagine observing the Japanese workforce for 30 years and concluding "The problem is that not enough people are being shoved through the gears".
内閣府特命担当大臣（孤独・孤立担当）
Minister of State for Special Missions (Loneliness/Isolation)And of course the Japanese announcement makes it clear that this is in response to social isolation brought on by coronavirus.
Dude is also the Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate, a position that's existed since 2007. So I guess he leads the Japanese anti-volcel program or something.
I have no evidence for this, but I'm 100% positive that the State Measure for Declining Birthrate has involved commissioning pro-pregnancy hentai.
In that they have a guy looking into they are technically doing better than us here
This is very sad, I can't imagine social alienation being so widespread that it needs its own government office to handle it
It could also be that social alienation is about just as bad where you live, except the government just doesn't feel like addressing it.
Yeah the 'Japan is sad and lonely' trope always seemed suspect to me... Like if I watch japanese yt channels or even westerners who are in japan that just doesn't seem to be the norm or at least not any more normal than everywhere else.
"Japan so wacky!" gets clicks, "Japan is pretty normal in a lot of respects" does not.
People link the weird game shows and stuff to prove Japan's really wacky until you realize America had a semi-popular series of movies wherein one guy drinks horse cum and another sticks his balls to a frozen pole.
spoiler
And hell, I'm tired of pretending Jackass wasn't funny!
I like asking people to take a step back and consider how objectively fucking weird a character like Batman is.
He's a billionaire who has untreated PTSD so he dresses like a fuking bat and drives around in his bat shaped car to fist fight a clown with untreated mental issues.
Fucking. Weird.
Japan is like america but worse, because of what america did to it. (Social alienation, technological dependence, etc etc. they are like 30 years ahead of the US in social mis-development).
Including anime you fucking weeaboos.
Ok, this is kinda funny, but a lot of the places that went in full neolib following American "advise" kinda offer a glimpse into American future/present. Like look at former Soviet block countries. This overabundance of chuds, crazy conspiracy theories spreading through the vast majority of the population, complete distrust of institutions and leaders and just general dissolution of society has been happening there since the 90s as a direct result of the US influence. Y'all are in for a ride
Including anime you fucking weeaboos.
Anime is an artistic expression of the Japanese people's social and spiritual needs, gone unfulfilled. It's a cry for help.
I'ma keep it real with you Japan's 58th prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, this will not help overturn Japan's declining birthrate
It sounds like a Nathan For You reference to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ol3pTTVDjU
That's a bingo
Although pretty far off the actual quote since I was going from memory
petition to change the Japanese government position to wizard of loneliness.
I wish my government put this much effort into addressing mental health crises
