A History of the Mental Structure of the Forgetful Japanese: Dissecting Japan from a Folklore Perspective

2024/05/24

Something is wrong with Japan.

It all started when I was interviewed in December 2021 (published in the Nikkei on January 26, 2022). How does folklore studies respond to the questions: Is Japan going wrong? Is the economy stagnating? Is politics in turmoil? Is this what some see as a "second defeat"?

This book was written after that interview, at the invitation of Sakiko Nakagoshi, a young editor at Sakurasha. The main point is that there are reasons for the current political and economic turmoil in Japan. Many people in Japan today are swayed by the mass media, which merely provides topics from the daily flow of events without verifying them, and this is endangering the very foundations of this country and society. I clarify why Japanese people have such habits of thought and behavior from the perspective of folklore studies within history. As for specific measures, for resource-poor Japan to persevere, the best way is to improve school education and develop human resources in each region! To increase the number of people who are not deceived by sophistry! That was the conclusion.

In 2011, I wrote a column titled "The 40-Year Cycle Theory of Modern and Contemporary Japan" (National Museum of Japanese History, Rekihaku no. 196). Modern Japanese history is in a cycle of prosperity and collapse every 40 years, with the watershed at the 20th year.

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was amidst financial collapse and unequal treaties; 1908 was after the victory in the Russo-Japanese War; 1948 was during the hell of the atomic bombings and defeat; 1988 was the peak of the bubble economy; and will 2028 be a disastrous Japan? Ruin occurs because generations who have forgotten the wisdom and hardships of their ancestors lead the country through the interests of their own inner circles, using authority that should be exercised publicly for private gain, amidst hereditary complacency and self-display. In 2008, at the watershed, Japan was in the midst of a whirlpool of political maneuvering and conflicting interests within the tripartite structure of the LDP-Komeito coalition, the Democratic Party, and the bureaucracy.

I am a 75-year-old man living through a time where the crisis I feared—that Japan is in danger if things continue this way—is now becoming a reality. I wrote this book because I want to continue considering the possibility of a V-shaped recovery after 2028. This is a volume learned from the folklore and ethnology of Kunio Yanagita and Shinobu Orikuchi.

A History of the Mental Structure of the Forgetful Japanese: Dissecting Japan from a Folklore Perspective

Takanori Shintani

Sakurasha

292 pages, 1,980 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.