The Eastern Edge

I stumbled on a very good opinion piece, with a somewhat unfortunately worded title, from the Japan Times that though I'd like to post because I really agree with what it has to say (if not how it is worded in a few places).

In essence it takes the Japan-haters (you know, the ones who despise Japan and spit in its face whenever possible but never seem to leave either!) and “social activists” to task for their blind insistence that everything they don’t like about Japan is because Japanese are racist and/or ignorant, and their self-centredness in seeing justice only in terms of themselves and their personal agendas.

Many so-called activists can’t see the forest for the people that have chained themselves to the trees, or hear what other people have to say over the noise of their own shouting and chanting of silly slogans.
While I wouldn't go so far as to say that people should have the right to discriminate, I do think that the issues tend to be a lot more complex that foreign activists (even ones holding Japanese passports, Debito!) would have you believe.
I think this piece shows that every story has multiple truths that require some mutual understanding to even hope to solve - and that's a type of understanding that aggressive activism only claims to seek but in reality has absolutely no use for.

I could probably write all day on this subject, but I think I'll let the article and my past rants on similar topics speak for themselves.
I'd never heard of Gregory Clark before reading this article, and I've only read this one so far, but I thank him for writing it and will make a point of looking through the extensive archives on his website.

For those of you living in, or just interested in Japan, this is worth checking out. And please remember, the next time you hear or read someone screaming about how horribly racist and ignorant Japan is - or the opposite; rants that defend Japan's every action - the people who scream the loudest aren't the only voices out there. The most reasonable arguments tend to be the ones that get drowned out by all the noise.
Keep your ear to the ground and you might hear a few. The smaller, quieter voices can sometimes pack a heavy punch.

It's a shame about some wording in the article’s title and conclusion, though, because I think many of the people his argument is directed at will never see beyond that.