Omdat 'wij klein zijn en zij zo groot'. Rare theorie, merkt conbinibento terecht op:
One can often hear the “Japan-is-a-small-agricultural-country” mentioned as the reasoning behind just about any possible shortcoming of Japanese society. Soccer team isn’t doing well? “We are a nation of small farmers.” Defeated in WWII? “We are a peaceful farming nation.” Increasing crime and weakening social fabric? “Western influences are destroying our small, harmonious nation.” Am I exaggerating a bit? Yes, but I’m not pulling it out of my ass completely”.
Physically we are small (conbinibento.com – 2006/6/20)
Japundit voegt er een logische vraag aan toe om de nihonjinron-theorie definitief van tafel te vegen:
"I wonder if it ever once occurred to these people that the other countries might just have superior teams."
It’s how you play the game (Japundit – 2006/6/20)
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About the 'nihonjin farmer complex', I just happened to read today this passage in a very, very funny book about the experiences of a gaijin salaryman at Mitsubishi:
Boss Salaryman: You know meat-eating can be a dangerous thing. Until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Americans forced our country to open its ports for trade, no meat was eaten in Japan and we had no trouble with foreign countries.
Gaijin Salaryman: How about the 'eta' in Tokyo? They were meat-eaters didn't they?
Boss Salaryman: They were just the bottom of society. No samurai ate meat. But after the Americans came and meat became more common, we began military expansion. The meat-eating culture makes people hunters, you see. We were used to be a non-eating-eating society. We were farmers. Farmers don't need to chase and to conquer. Hunters do. I believe that ... (he bites in a chunck of pork) ... that most of the world's conflicts are due to meat-eaters. Hunters. Now if only we remained as farmers, like we were before the foreigners came and made us eat meat.
Gaijin Salaryman: What about all the wars before the foreigners came?
Boss Salaryman: They were only about who was ruling who. Not really about conquering territory.
MURTAGH, Niall, 'The Blue-Eyed Salaryman. From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi', Profile Books, London, p. 111
ISBN-10 1 86197 7891 ISBN-13 978 1 86197 789 2
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