There is much to admire about Japanese culture. It is a beautiful country, with very friendly people. I remember all the times I'd fly into Narita or Haneda airport, and marvel just how meticulously clean they kept these busy public spaces. That would be apparent when I flew back into LAX or JFK, just how pervasive cleanliness is in their culture. They also take epidemics and overall public health, very seriously. It isn't surprising, given that they've had to deal with epidemics that have happened not too long ago(SARS 1, for example). If we thought that some of our states(Washington, Michigan, Hawaii), had lockdown mitigation rules that were far too strict(which I can agree to some extent), then we've not been paying attention to Japan, and for the matter, many other Asian countries. In particular, Japan's prizing of cleanliness and public health has led to have COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures that would easily make governors Gretchen Whitmer, Andrew Cuomo, Jay Inslee, and Daniel Ige look very lenient, comparatively speaking. As a result, their culture tends to be risk-averse in many aspects, and they go to extremes(at least by ours and European standards) in erring on the side of caution. This is why it isn't surprising that the commencement of the Olympics is unpopular in Japan.
As for Oyamada, I remember when I was a kid, I got a school classmate who had mental disabilities, to sell me his expensive Canon camera, for $5. It was cruel no doubt, but I was an immature snot of an early teenager. Of course I remember my parents having none of it, and forced me to return the camera and apologize to him and his family. I just think it is really unfair to penalize someone for what they did as kid. Kids are kids, and while I'm not excusing what they do, they are in the maturing process, and doing stupid things is a part of it. It is really unfortunate that Oyamada had to be cancelled based on that one incident that happened when he was a kid. What is the incentive for growing up to adulthood, if people can be cancelled for just a single incident of childhood misbehavior?
As far as Kobayashi is concerned, it is unfortunate that one poorly thought out joke 23 years ago should be enough to cancel him.
I think cancelling of these sorts happen because of the lack of grace, mercy, and forgiveness on the part of society, collectively speaking. And also not recognizing and accepting that people can and do change for the better. I would hope that every person is judged based on the totality of who they are as a person as well as how they've evolved to becoming, and not based on one mistake or wrongdoing much earlier in their lives.
I think the term "cancel culture" tends to be abused by political partisans on both sides of the fence, in excusing bad behavior, and whatever else is inexcusable. That aside, it is an unfortunate reality that otherwise good people get cancelled by having their past blown out of proportion. As Chris mentioned in his comment here regarding James Gunn of Marvel, people on the right are also capable of having the zeal for cancelling just as those on the left do. There are plenty of people that deserve to be reinstated as Gunn was.
A little more of grace, forgiveness, and charity on our part, can go a long way into preventing decent people from unnecessarily having their lives and careers ruined.
It's unfortunate that James Gunn[1] ended up being the exception, and not the rule.
[1] https://winteriscoming.net/2021/07/15/james-gunn-opens-up-marvel-firing-unbelievable-dc/
There is much to admire about Japanese culture. It is a beautiful country, with very friendly people. I remember all the times I'd fly into Narita or Haneda airport, and marvel just how meticulously clean they kept these busy public spaces. That would be apparent when I flew back into LAX or JFK, just how pervasive cleanliness is in their culture. They also take epidemics and overall public health, very seriously. It isn't surprising, given that they've had to deal with epidemics that have happened not too long ago(SARS 1, for example). If we thought that some of our states(Washington, Michigan, Hawaii), had lockdown mitigation rules that were far too strict(which I can agree to some extent), then we've not been paying attention to Japan, and for the matter, many other Asian countries. In particular, Japan's prizing of cleanliness and public health has led to have COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures that would easily make governors Gretchen Whitmer, Andrew Cuomo, Jay Inslee, and Daniel Ige look very lenient, comparatively speaking. As a result, their culture tends to be risk-averse in many aspects, and they go to extremes(at least by ours and European standards) in erring on the side of caution. This is why it isn't surprising that the commencement of the Olympics is unpopular in Japan.
These Olympics never should have been held until we were actually sure the pandemic would be over. Of course, they are held because of the money.
As for Oyamada, I remember when I was a kid, I got a school classmate who had mental disabilities, to sell me his expensive Canon camera, for $5. It was cruel no doubt, but I was an immature snot of an early teenager. Of course I remember my parents having none of it, and forced me to return the camera and apologize to him and his family. I just think it is really unfair to penalize someone for what they did as kid. Kids are kids, and while I'm not excusing what they do, they are in the maturing process, and doing stupid things is a part of it. It is really unfortunate that Oyamada had to be cancelled based on that one incident that happened when he was a kid. What is the incentive for growing up to adulthood, if people can be cancelled for just a single incident of childhood misbehavior?
As far as Kobayashi is concerned, it is unfortunate that one poorly thought out joke 23 years ago should be enough to cancel him.
I think cancelling of these sorts happen because of the lack of grace, mercy, and forgiveness on the part of society, collectively speaking. And also not recognizing and accepting that people can and do change for the better. I would hope that every person is judged based on the totality of who they are as a person as well as how they've evolved to becoming, and not based on one mistake or wrongdoing much earlier in their lives.
I think the term "cancel culture" tends to be abused by political partisans on both sides of the fence, in excusing bad behavior, and whatever else is inexcusable. That aside, it is an unfortunate reality that otherwise good people get cancelled by having their past blown out of proportion. As Chris mentioned in his comment here regarding James Gunn of Marvel, people on the right are also capable of having the zeal for cancelling just as those on the left do. There are plenty of people that deserve to be reinstated as Gunn was.
A little more of grace, forgiveness, and charity on our part, can go a long way into preventing decent people from unnecessarily having their lives and careers ruined.