Ask John: Does America Have More Religious Sensitivity Than Japan?

Question:
Hello, John. I decided to submit a question (or a counterargument) when I read the Japanese translation of your “Is Japanese Pop Culture Aware of Religious Sensitivity?” [article]. Your argument apparently sounds correct (at least regarding Japanese videogames), but don’t you think it is very unfair for Americans to argue about foreign pop cultures without any examination of themselves?

For example, “Back to the Future” depicts Libyans as if innate terrorists or a Japanese businessman as if an arrogant supervisor of the American protagonist, while black Americans are caricaturized from a point of relatively positive view instead of the story being set in the ’50s. It proves that Hollywood film makers are indifferent to perspectives from abroad while they are very sensitive to domestic criticisms. I know the American media is sometimes very sensitive to religious or racial discriminations, but it is largely due to the fact the U.S. innately has a lot of races including African Americans as well as foreign religions including Muslim, not to speak of a lot of minorities (BTW, Japanese Moslems amount only to around 9,000 out of over 120,000,000 Japanese, or around 0.0075%). In other words, the American people only become sensitive as long as they have received / will receive criticisms or blames domestically. If the American entertainment industries are really sensitive to perspectives from abroad, they would not have produced a Madonna’s PV, where Americans hanging down from a Shinto archway, or a blasphemy story of Homer Simpson, who got down the emperor of Japan on the Sumo ring when he made a trip to Tokyo with his family!

I’m afraid that the question and John’s answer sound as if only Japanese were insensitive to perspectives from foreigners. However, I think that pop cultures including both Hollywood and Japanese anime are innately indifferent to perspectives from abroad. Don’t you?

Furthermore, I must say that it is incorrect your theory that the Japanese creators are insensitive to icons or symbols of foreign religions, because they are also insensitive to Japanese traditional religions. See a villain from “Sailor Moon”; she was named after Amaterasu, a goddess from Japanese Shinto, and no Japanese allegedly condemned the creators. Sakura from Urusei Yatsura was a Miko, or Shinto shrine maiden, and was frequently caricatured.

Many Japanese readers seem disappointed with your mostly correct, but pretty unfair argument. I know Ask John is aimed principally at anime fans in English-speaking world, but don’t you think you should discuss the subject once more for your faithful Japanese fans?

Answer:
Dear readers, please accept my humble apology if I’ve unintentionally offended anyone. In response to some of the criticism to my article about religious insensitivity within Japanese animation, I realize now that I may have partially extended a characteristic evident in some anime to apply to all Japanese society. I must also concede that my article did not originally explain that Japanese culture does not place as much weight on religious symbols as Christian societies do. I have since amended the response to mention that point.

It was never my intention to address this topic with a condescending tone. The criticism from Japanese readers that America tends to impose its own cultural principles and morality onto other cultures is very appropriate because it’s true. As an American citizen, I’ll readily admit that American society has a habit of frequently presuming that its own values are, or should be, universally adopted and respected. Furthermore, I’ll concede that Hollywood’s film industry is one of America’s least progressive institutions to publicly deal with international racial and religious stereotypes, despite being one of America’s most influential international representatives.

I do feel that my original “Ask John” article does clarify that I’m not criticizing Japanese society from an elevated, admonishing position. Although my original response has obviously created the impression that it directly compared Japanese religious sensitivity with American respect for religious diversity, it did not. I directly compared American and Japanese sexual equality, civil consciousness, and environmental awareness, but my article did not discuss America’s respect for religious diversity, nor did I intend it to. As I stated, I never tried to suggest that American culture is innately superior or more enlightened than Japanese society, and I never intended to address America’s religious sensitivity at all, much less in comparison to Japan.

The examples provided by Japanese critics only support the fact that I, and many American citizens, know and readily admit. American sensitivity toward religious diversity is motivated as much by anxiety over censure as genuine moral respect. However, my article intended to address only religious sensitivity in Japan, without comparison to similar American tendencies. I do believe that modern Japanese culture is sometimes unconscious of international reactions to Japanese depictions of religious references, although there are always exceptions. I freely admit that the same accusation applies to American culture. I never wanted to suggest otherwise, and apologize to anyone who may have apprehended that impression from my writing.