Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop

Rating:
Summary: gaijin, longnosed, ignorant smiling devil!
Review: Hey, wake up and smell the coffee! Japan's academic
establishment is indeed an insular and hostile environment.
All foreign devils who intrude into this realm must be wary
for even if they are invited (by contract) they are invading
the inner sanctum of Nihonjinron nationalism and will be
looked upon as suspect or treated with not so subtle mockery
at every turn. In l994 the totalitarian bureaucrats in
the Ministry of Education (indoctrination and mind control)
fired all foreign professors, including those who presumed
that they had lifetime tenure. Contracts are meaningless.
Imagine the Federal government of the United States suddenly
firing all foreign educators because of 'budget considerations'.
There would be a firestorm of protest from the ACLU to the
Young Republicans Club. But in Japan no one raised even a
whimper of protest as the devil gaijin were shown the door!
Even those gaijin who had shown a humble attempt at social harmony and had mastered the Japanese language were fired.
Educators like Hall had a private audience with then US ambassador
Walter Mondale. They voiced their grievances. He made a mild
protest to the Japanese government and then the matter was
quietly forgotten!! Don't waste your time trying to build an
academic career in Japan. The educational authorities here will
play you along but in the end they'll screw you while howling
gleefully. I wish to God the American government had acted
in a similar fashion in l994 and retaliated by firing most
Japanese instructors in America, but such is not the American
way. Hell, we even train terrorist pilots how to fly jumbo jets.
In Japan, 'Uncle Sam' is often looked upon as 'Uncle Sap' and
America's emphasis on academic freedom and individual rights are
viewed with disgust or contempt. How do I know all of these
things? I am a former university instructor at Japan's most
elite private college, Waseda University. I well understand
Hall's lament on closed minds and intellectual cartels. I was
treated with only slightly veiled contempt by the 'honorable
sensei' at Waseda. Sadly, one
can only fear that Japan will slip into a nationalistic mood
once more, akin to that of the l930's with dire results for
all of Asia and the United States. No, not war. Just having to
endure these bores. More enlightened Japanese
academics are seeking teaching opportunities outside of Japan!
Hall has done a favor to any younger academic contemplating
a teaching career in Japan! Forget it! Stay home and go to
work in a bank.

Rating:
Summary: Exposing Japan
Review: It's hard to find fault in a book that speaks the truth so eloquently..and so courageously. Unfortunately, Japan doesn't have enough people of Ivan Hall's character - people willing to take a stand and raise awareness of what is really happening underneath the tatemae the Japanese have so carefully constructed. Gutless Americans are not a rare breed in Japan, and the fact that many have bought into the fact that the treatment of foreigners as "others" is just shou ga nai (a fact of life) continues to reinforce to the Japanese that there is something intuitively correct about Nihonjinron (the sense of the Japanese as being a special people by blood and the Japanese language a language only masterable by pure Japanese). And gutless American businessmen and longterm residents aren't the only ones to blame; Japanologists and Japanese academics in the U.S. sell-out in equally large numbers, their motives being that they don't want to risk hurting their Japanese colleagues' feelings or chance losing research money or grants. Spineless.

In Cartels, Ivan Hall puts his professional career and reputation on the line for a noble purpose. There is no doubt that he was aware of the negative publicity he would receive in Japan for exposing this deeply engrained social corruption, but his work is larger than him. It was written for all of the foreigners who have had enough of Japan's insular ideology. For those of us who pour our time, energy, and heart into Japan as residents and who deserve nothing less than acknowledgment and treatment as similar people. Ivan Hall hits the nail on the head when he exposes Japanese kokusaika (internationalization) as an attempt not to open its culture up to people of other cultures, but to instead emphasize differences and block access to Japanese culture. Learn English, speak English to people who appear to be Westerners, and you have achieved kokusaika. Allowing Westerners to move to Japan, learn Japanese fluently, and behave like us, though, is unthinkable. Hogwash.

Rating:
Summary: Humble Enough to Learn the Language?
Review: Like Karel Van Wolferen's the Enigma of Japanese Power, and more recently Alex Kerr's brilliant Dogs and Demons, Cartels of the Mind should be viewed not only for lessons in how foreigners can or cannot relate to Japan, but to understand how the Japanese people are being damaged by the subtle, yet brutal systematic mind control of Japan's Ministry of Education.
This is in response to the review that says:"Speaking of "closedness", there must be much more opportunities in Japan than now, only if any foreign people speak and write Japanese fluently. This must be a certain barrier, but it can be easily overcome if they are humble enough to learn Japanese language, the very essence of Japanese culture."
I have lived in Japan for ten years, am fluent in the language and must state that learning Japanese may have gained me a few half-hearted compliments, but far from being a road in, most foreigners are even discouraged from displaying their abilities. It has helped me in social situations and with academic pursuits, but it has never helped make inroads towards career advancement, or helped penetrate the obstacles that Mr. Hall discusses in his book. He's right on target!