> Younger Japanese (age 40 and below) [..] understand that the social structures which served their parents and grandparents are keeping Japan held back and isolated
I don't know where you're getting this from. Decline of those old structures is roughly equated in the public mind with the decline of Japanese society as a whole. Holding the country back? From what? From being like America? Neoliberal economic excess is not viewed positively in Japan. Go and watch any finance-related drama (Hagetaka, Hanzawa Naoki) to understand the cultural norms better.
The generation you're talking about who are more worldly (roughly, the shibuya-kei generation) rose on the back of those old structures, and fell with them, too. The current generation is as inward-looking as ever, perhaps more so.
> But because of deeply ingrained Confucian cultural values about submission to elders, there's little they can do about it
So submission to elders prevents them from voting, is that what you're trying to say? Rubbish, if so. If not, I don't know what you're trying to say.
Your depiction of otaku culture as headstrong rebels determined to do their own thing, damn the criticism, is the inverse of reality as I know it. And if the hikikomori phenomenon is a pure reaction to a restrictive social culture, where was it 20 years ago? Nowhere, of course - hikikomori is an internet-enabled phenomenon, and it is everywhere, not just Japan.
For someone who criticised Gibson for his pseudo-intellectual pontifications, you're spouting quite a bit yourself.
I don't know where you're getting this from. Decline of those old structures is roughly equated in the public mind with the decline of Japanese society as a whole. Holding the country back? From what? From being like America? Neoliberal economic excess is not viewed positively in Japan. Go and watch any finance-related drama (Hagetaka, Hanzawa Naoki) to understand the cultural norms better.
The generation you're talking about who are more worldly (roughly, the shibuya-kei generation) rose on the back of those old structures, and fell with them, too. The current generation is as inward-looking as ever, perhaps more so.
> But because of deeply ingrained Confucian cultural values about submission to elders, there's little they can do about it
So submission to elders prevents them from voting, is that what you're trying to say? Rubbish, if so. If not, I don't know what you're trying to say.
Your depiction of otaku culture as headstrong rebels determined to do their own thing, damn the criticism, is the inverse of reality as I know it. And if the hikikomori phenomenon is a pure reaction to a restrictive social culture, where was it 20 years ago? Nowhere, of course - hikikomori is an internet-enabled phenomenon, and it is everywhere, not just Japan.
For someone who criticised Gibson for his pseudo-intellectual pontifications, you're spouting quite a bit yourself.