That conservative Westerners don't get Japanese culture might explain why they and their counterparts in Japan want to ban lolicon and that anime where a 12-yr old boy cross-dresses to please his older sempai.
Yeah, yeah, I know calling the pedophile older man "sempai" is totally unacceptable. The closest I can get to what the old guy might be is by referring to him as Oji-sama (honored uncle), but that's disrespectful of Japanese culture. Even if he added the honorific, -chan, to the boy's name, it's more likely he would also add -kun to his name when doing the ritual master-disciple routine.
Am I suggesting that Japanese society is run like that? No, only the arch conservative parts of Japanese society are run exactly like that. Though a yakuza member would view his boss as "oyabun" and the boss would consider his underlings "kobun", which is a highly ritualized and symbolic master-disciple relationship which younger members of a group (disciples) defer to the leader of their group (the master). Considering their sense of justice, they would deal with pedophiles harshly.
However the oyabun/kobun relationship between a master and his disciples is based on sociopolitical structures common throughout most of East Asia.
Due to the ignorance about Asian culture, the West does not get the master-disciple shtick at all. So when Obama accidentally bowed too low to the Emperor of Japan, the American right wing conservatives went ballistic, crying that "American does not submit to any nation, not even the conquered nation of Japan."
Talk about misreading the situation.
Even though America honestly admits to its economic imperialism before, during and after World War 2, it's never going to submit to Japan, even though some of us in the West love their anime and culture.
As far as nation-states are concerned, all of them are created equal, though some countries are more equal than others. ;)
Even so, otaku of the West who love anime and manga are not traitors of the West. All we are are people who live, breathe and eat Japanese culture.
I should talk though. I sure love me cod and chips.
Originally posted on Jun 19, 2014 at 5:22 PM PDT
Reference:
Otaku: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku
Lolicon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolicon
K=Yakuza: organization and activities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#Organization_and_activities
Sociopolitical organization among East Asians: http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/East-Asians-of-Canada-Sociopolitical-Organization.html
Presidential Bows, Revisited: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/presidential-bows-revisited/comment-page-3/?apage=4&_r=0
American imperialism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_imperialism
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