[sarvodaya]

I wasn't really trying to argue and prove that multiculturalism is decisively the best course, but merely to explain what I believe is the thinking behind multiculturalism as a plausible premise. We can have a bit of a to and fro debate if you like though!

Here are the corrections:

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Why Japan prefers a monocultural society.
This is my answer to Kakusa’s comment.


Kakusan: Of course in the case of the Potato Famine, there were many other historical factors that induced the dependence upon potatoes, but when one has the choice it is certainly preferable not to rely upon a single variety of crops.

Yuri: In Ogasawara Islands which is located in the south of Tokyo, there were about 350 endemic insects, but alien species are exterminating most of them. In particular, a green anole (lizard) has had a profound impact on the native [sounds a little more natural] insects and plants. This is only one example and alien species have been doing a lot of damage to [EITHER: ]"endemic Japanese insects, plants, fish and animals" [OR] "endemic insects, plants, fish and animals throughout Japan.

Kakusan: In genetics, too, we see that if we have two specimens that are weak due to high homozygosity, but they are highly heterozygous with respect to one another, so to speak, their offspring will be much stronger, larger and healthier.

Yuri: I do not see why you need to be large. I do not fight hand-in-hand combat or hunt animals. I’m sure that I have enough muscle strength, and Japan has the world’s highest longevity rate. I think this means Japanese people are healthy.

Kakusan: However, if one society comprises many cultures rather than just one, then it is much more likely that the society as a whole will be able to find within itself those cultural resources with which to equip itself against the new difficulty. In this way, we can learn from those who are different from us how best to cope with unfamiliar situations.

Yuri: We can learn from other countries because we can study abroad when necessary. I do not see why you need to live together in one society.

Kakusan: In turn this eventually leads to a more peaceful society.

Yuri: Do you know that Japan is very safe and girls can walk outside alone in the middle of the night wearing skirts and high heels? I do not think the UK and the US are more peaceful.

Kakusan: People will always find reasons to hate one another. Whether they be religion, culture or skin colour,

Yuri: The Japanese do not hate people because of religion or skin colour. I do not see why you hate people for such reasons. Japan persecuted Christianity in the 17th century, but that was just to prevent being colonized by Western countries.

Kakusan: I understand what you are saying about "reading between the lines" and hearing what is left unsaid. However, when we have to learn how to do this with a new group of people with different mores, we leave our "comfort zone" and both exercise a new area of our brain and learn something about ourselves which could not have otherwise been revealed.

Yuri: In Japan, when you are starting out in a new workplace, after introducing yourself, you communicate that you know hardly anything and ask to be shown the ropes. This is the Japanese way to say things. We do not expect our co-workers to tell us everything, but we act like this because we find the attitude of self-confidence when you first meet people despicable. On the other hand, Western people always show their self-confidence, and if you were to act like the Japanese, your co-workers would hate or look down on you, right? I believe this way of behaving comes from the Japanese spirit. Do we need to change our culture and spirit? I do not want to.
When we go abroad, we conform to your way, but in Japan, we want to be ourselves.

Kakusan: Obviously there is the long-term history of the "Bamboo Curtain",

Yuri: Bamboo Curtain is of China.

Perhaps it's different in Japan, but in the west we refer to the Japanese policy of isolationism during the Edo period as the "bamboo curtain". Here are some examples:

"From time to time enterprising Yankee sea captains had defied the boycott of the hated foreigners, but nevertheless found it impossible to raise that bamboo curtain which cut the native Japanese off from contact with the West...
The documents were delivered to the princes Idzu and Iwami, representatives of the Emperor, in an interview which lasted no more than half an hour. His Imperial Highness, correct protocol or not, got the point of Fillmore's letter, responded through his commissioners in a friendly manner, and on March 31, 1854, made a treaty with the United States granting trade rights at the two ports of Hakodate and Shinoda. The bamboo curtain had at long last been lifted."
Great Presidential Decisions: State papers that changed the course of history — R. B. Morris, 1961; p180.
Full text of "Great Presidential Decisions State Papers That Changed The Coures Of History"

"Of course the bamboo curtain of Tokugawa seclusion was never completely impenetrable."
Albert Craig in The autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa; p.374

"In 1853, Commodore Perry of the US Navy arrived in Japan with a flotilla of warships to end Japan's "Bamboo Curtain" against the West."

"In 1853, when Commodore Perry lifted the bamboo curtain that surrounded Japan, the Landreth Company sent along a box of seeds and in return received a box of Japanese seeds."
Jefferson's garden - Google Books

"In those days Japan was a highly civilized, open country with large military forces and merchant fleets trading throughout the vast eastern Pacific. Dutch and Spanish traders and diplomats were followed by missionaries seeking to Christianize the Japanese. The activities of such men as Vizcaino, and in particular the increasing arrival of missionaries, were in large measure responsible for a sudden and drastic decision which shut Japan off from the modem world. It remained, withdrawn and sullen, behind its own bamboo curtain until the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853."
https://www.sandiegohistory.org/book...rschapter5.htm

"After short periods of limited trade with some European countries (primarily Holland but only on an off-shore trading zone) in the early 17th century, Japan once again closed the bamboo curtain solidly to the west."
Hempen Culture In Japan

Of course this is also used to refer to the isolationist policy of communist China, so it can be confusing. I think you call it 鎖国 or 海禁.

Kakusan: So, to take a very broad, overall message from history, one could get the impression that Japanese interactions with the "outside" have had a tremendously unfortunate negative tendency.

Yuri: Yes. In addition, our culture and spirit is different from yours; so when you behave ordinary, sometimes we can’t help feeling you are cowards because we do not have the culture of debate [not exactly sure what you mean here, perhaps elaborate a bit?]. I think Japanese people sometimes feel we have been argued down by foreign people.

Kakusan: In this sense, it seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Japan has benefited from an exclusive kind of "multiculturalism of ideas" in a way that few other nations can claim to have done.

Yuri: Yes, you are right. So, I do not see why we have to live with foreign people when we can get a lot of information about foreign countries easily.
I don’t dislike foreign people, I love foreign countries, but still I personally prefer to live in a monocultural society rather than a multicultural one.

Thank you.
覚さん、Could you correct my English?

覚