A Symbolism (Rashomon and Japanese Politics)

The Japanese political system is said to be admirable to the foreign eyes. Japan is a constitutional democracy and some believed that the Japanese system should be stimulated. However, they were unaware of the true conduct of Japanese politics. Even though the Japanese had a strong tradition of group cohesiveness which led to strong nationalism, we cannot avoid a realist principle that each individual has their own interests and that each would give importance to itself first than others. In other words there is independence among groups.

Rashomon is Japanese film by Akira Kurosawa, which depicts the story of a woman who was raped and her husband murdered. The story went through with an detective seeking out the truth behind the mutual contradictory perspectives of the different characters involved or are witnesses in the crime, which are the woodcutter, the travelling Buddhist priest, the bandit, the samurai through a medium and the samurai’s wife.

The various perspectives in the Rashomon story correspond to the three employment classes in Japan. The metaphor is relevant to the three segments which are history, culture and politics, which compel the Japanese economic, political and social policies. Repression in the Japanese government or in other words misleading the people from the truth in order to keep their honor and to pursue their own interests is portrayed by the character the “woodcutter” in Rashomon.

Inspiration

The ability to adhere to an appointed time, punctuality, could be one of the foundation of why we should compare politics. There is a concept of punctuality which only exists in the Philippines and that is what we call "Filipino Time." A good example for explaining this concept is that when person A and person B decided to meet each other at a certain time, they would almost always arrive an hour or thirty minutes late. Comparing it with the punctuality of people in Japan, it would turn out to be quite different. In Japan people are punctual. They value time as much as they value themselves. If for instance there is an event to attend to, people would always arrive 10-30 minutes early. Most of the people don't value time in the Philippines, on the contrary, people in Japan value time and thus they are punctual people. The idea is also similar in comparing politics.

We need to compare politics because of the fact that there are always differences in every country. There are developed countries and developing countries. There are also different forms of rule which may be good or corrupt. These concepts could serve as a guide for developing countries especially the Philippines. Mistakes of other countries could be avoided and also transitions could also be based from the results of comparing politics. Through studying the system of one's own government and comparing it with other governments, we could determine what decisions to make and do the appropriate actions.

So why do we need to study Japan politics? As we all know, today, Japan is one of the powerful and well developed states in Asia. After the second World War, the country was devastated. A few decades later, they rose from the ashes and started to grow at a rapid manner. Comparing their situation with the Philippines, Japan is quite an impressive country because of their recovery. Because of that we should consider Japan as a role model for our country. Their discipline and nationalism is unlike any other. The reason why the Philippines is still a developing country is because the people lack discipline and nationalism and so we should take in consideration their political system and how it works. It serves as an example for us to follow so that hopefully in the future the Philippines would also become a developed country, Japan as an inspiration.