Rock and Roll and a Reason Why American Musicians No Longer Capture the World's Imagination?

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.” -Pericles 

6 O'Clock Yatsura on 76.1 InterFM in Tokyo

I sit at the Yakitori-ya (BBQ chicken on sticks restaurant) and nurse my Hoppy and a few delicious sticks of chicken. Kashimura san, the neighborhood school English teacher besides me howls about the decline of Japanese civilization,


"Japanese kids today don't care about studying English. They don't want to go to the United States anymore. They are not fascinated by the west. If Japanese kids don't learn about other cultures, especially the United States, Japan is doomed!" He says.


I laugh. Kashimura san comes from an older generation of Japanese. He is from the generation that grew up with Elvis Presley and Rock and Roll music. The United States, to his generation of Japanese, represented dreams and freedom. Kashimura even has posters of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe - very old American idols from a day long past - on the walls of his classroom. But, that's not what the United States represents to young Japanese people anymore... I say to him, 


"Don't worry about it, Kashimura san. It's not the end of Japanese civilization, it is the end of the United States. You are just witnessing the fall of the American empire, that's all. That's what it is."


Kashimura stares at me incredulously.

"Seriously, that's what it is, Kashimura san. Japanese kids are not interested in the United States anymore NOT so much because the Japanese kids have changed so much, kids are always kids and interested in fun and excitement,  they are just not interested in the United States anymore because the United States isn't fun and exciting anymore. It has changed, and not for the better. The United States isn't a good place full of dreams.


It used to be that the USA were the good guys, but they are not anymore. The USA and NATO lackeys as well as the UN (which has become a rubber stamp organization for US imperialism) bomb and destroy the homes and families of brown skinned people all over the world 24/7 and it is obvious to everyone (excepting many Americans).


I hear that Japanese enrollment at Ivy League universities are way down. I know for a fact the enrollment in English schools in Japan has crashed. I submit to you that it is because of three things:

• The United States has a very bad image of a country full of crime and a definitive lack of safety

• The United States has a very bad image of a country full of abusive police and a police state (TSA, Homeland Security, etc...)

• The United States and its people have the image of a nation of war mongers

I'd like to add another one to that list but I don't think most Japanese realize this (I do - I talk to Americans all the time) and that is: Far too many Americans are completely out of touch and ignorant of the extent of the murder the US government and military are involved in in the name of the people. The really dumb Americans act like and say, "I'm apolitical." When, in fact, it is these very same people who are responsible for what has happened to that country. They can bury their heads in the sand all they want. But they are responsible.


I wonder if the sixties artists who protested the Vietnam war, guys like Bob Dylan, would have gotten very far if while the Vietnam War was going on and we were bombing those people 24/7, he'd have shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know about it. I'm apolitical." 


Ha! How can you be apolitical when your country takes your money and uses it to kill children in other countries? That's like Germans in World War II saying they are apolitical while the Nazis killed minorities and Jews and wiped out entire populations.


"Yeah... But, well, I don't know about that!" Typical American says. 


Since when has ignorance been an excuse?


So this situation is why Japanese kids are no longer fascinated with the USA. I believe it is also a big reason American and western rock artists are no longer popular here. What ever happened to musicians who had a message and something to say? Weren't politically charged and motivated artists in the sixties moving entire segments of society? They sure were in Japan!


What's the difference between the artists of those days and today's American artists? Back in those days, the American military were bombing and killing brown skinned children 24/7, yet American musicians sang about it and protested. They were popular all over the world.


Today, the American military are bombing and killing brown skinned children all over the world 24/7, yet American musicians, for the large part, are in muted silence... They tell me, "I'm apolitical."


Ha! Yeah, and you don't sell records all over the world like you used to either. 

Japan!? Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic - In Step and in Tune!

Hot on the heels of my post yesterday lambasting the government... (What government? Any government. You choose.) Here is an article about how some nitwits in the Japanese government want to enforce their nationalist beliefs and musical tastes on other people.... And how the supreme court actually agrees with them!!!

KIYOSHIRO IMAWANO - KIMIGAYO

THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL VERSION

What rubbish! This is complete nonsense.


I can believe this sort of idiocy if it were the United States. That country is full of busybodies trying to inflict their beliefs on other people (as well as their goose-steeping nationalist ideals). Let me prove it to you. Fact of the matter is that, In Indiana, it is illegal to sing any Bob Dylan songs in a public place. I am not making this up.


So I believe idiotic stuff like this coming from my anal retentive homeland, but Japan? Come on. Really! 


Reuters reports:


TOKYO, May 30 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Supreme Court determined Monday it is constitutional that a school principal made teachers and clerks stand and sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem in front of the Hinomaru national flag at a graduation ceremony, in a landmark ruling that is likely to affect a series of similar lawsuits over the contentious issue.


You've got to be kidding me! Where in the constitution of Japan does it state that a school principal has the authority to make people stand when a song is played? Show me!


This is laughable: 


The four-justice top court panel, in rejecting an appeal by a former Tokyo high school teacher, ruled unanimously that while the plaintiff's freedom of thought and conscience may be "indirectly constrained" to a certain extent, it was within "an acceptable degree" given the "necessity and rationality" for such an obligation.


Riiiiiight.... His thinking was "indirectly constrained" but it was to "an acceptable degree"?.... What a load of BS! It's a "necessity and ration(ity)" for such an obligation!? No. It's not.


If this were a free exchange of business between two consenting partners and a mutually agreeable contract, then let them do whatever they want... But, this is a public school and after hiring a guy, then his cranky right wing boss gets so upset because the guy doesn't want to stand when some tune is played? Horse sh*t!


Upholding a Tokyo High Court ruling, the Supreme Court dismissed the demand for compensation from 64-year-old Yuji Saruya, a former teacher at a Tokyo metropolitan government-run high school who disobeyed the order once in 2004 and was refused reemployment after retirement.


OK. Well, dismissing the guys demand to get paid for not standing up might be the only part of this comedy that does makes sense....


Japanese court rulings have been split over the issue and Monday's ruling was the first time for the top court to issue its judgment on the requirement for teachers and school clerks to stand up at the hoisting of the national flag and sing the "Kimigayo" anthem at events such as enrollment and graduation ceremonies.


Catch that? Not only do you clowns have to stand up now. You must sing. What next? Forced vocal training so that all these off key people don't ruin the song too?


The latest decision is also likely to influence deliberations at the Osaka prefectural assembly where a political group led by Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has proposed an ordinance that would oblige school teachers to do so.


Great! Today's "Idiot of the Day" award winner goes out to a Mister Hashimoto Toru from Osaka. Step up and collect your prize! 


"Kimigayo," which carries lines originally wishing for the eternal reign of the emperor, is often seen as a symbol of Japan's past imperialism and militarism, making ceremonies involving them a contentious issue that has led to lawsuits.



Isn't this so ridiculous? We are spending tax money on courts for stuff like this?!

Who knows? Had the Japanese soldiers been able to carry 

a decent tune maybe they'd have won the war?

The economy is falling apart; the demographics of this country are the worst in the entire industrialized world; our debt is 225.8% of GDP; we have a big nuclear power plant still not stabilized; due to the nuclear plant troubles, we are running the countries energy grid at 60% capacity; unemployment is up; household spending is down; the current prime minister and his clueless party wants to double our sales tax; ad nauseam.


And these clowns are worried if people sit down or stand up when a particular song is played? Do teachers have to stand up if, say, a radicalized version like the one at the top of this post is played too?


Let's call this an extreme example of government ineptitude and a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after its hit the ice berg. But, in this case, since this is Japan, it's not the Titanic, it's the battleship Yamato on its last voyage heading for Okinawa... 


Anyone who has studied any history knows how successful a venture that one was! If they don't know it, then I think we should pass a law that forces all Japanese to rent the hit movie about the sinking of the Yamato starring SMAP or whoever was in it and make them watch. 


Then we pass a law making them enjoy it when they are forced to watch it too. 


That'll get this country on the right track!