The resignation of Mori Yoshiro, which is expected to happen sometime later today, would be good news for Japan and the Japanese sports world, not to mention a good example to set ahead of the next summer Olympics planned to begin in Tokyo on July 23rd. Mori’s comments recently about women in meetings were insensitive and sexist, and need not be repeated.
But the appointment of Kawabuchi Saburo to the head of Japan’s Olympic Committee, which was also expected, would have hardly been a bold move. As many have noted, Kawabuchi’s views on corporal punishment (taibatsu) seem antiquated, not terribly dissimilar to Mori’s sexist comments about women a week ago. There is a lot that Kawabuchi has done to improve the Japanese sports world, but he hardly represents a changing of the guard from Mori, and for that reason Japan’s Twitterverse appears to be up in arms.
In fact, the links between older, male conservatives like Mori and Kawabuchi and the deeper ideologies of militarism, nationalism run deep through Japanese modern history. Somehow, for these men, corporal punishment keeps coming up as an issue that they need to speak on, despite the fact that the practice has driven some young people to commit suicide in recent years.
As I found researching these issues for many years, supporters of taibatsu are often nationalists who believe that Article 9 of the postwar constitution unjustly stripped Japan of its sovereignty, and its ability to transmit its “traditional” values to the next generation. Proponents have argued that taibatsu furthers discipline, guides errant youth, and teaches them that the group comes before the individual, but argue that American or Western ways – including the exclusion of the practice from educational settings – strips Japan of its ability to instill these values.
Echoes of this view can be seen in Kawabuchi Saburo’s comments about taibatsu from a tweet in July 2019:
“We do not always have to see corporal punishments as the evil. I assume that parents with Oni-face can hit kids who might be delinquent. That is where the clash of souls between human beings exists.” (thanks to my colleagues Nakazawa Atsushi and Tsukahara Fumio for translation assistance!)
Interestingly, though, in the early 19th century, before Commodore Perry’s Black Ships arrived to Japan, some foreign visitors regarded Japanese child-rearing practices as relatively lenient, and taibatsu does not appear to have been as widespread as it was in the West at the time. However, as Japan industrialized and militarized in the first four decades of the 20th century, the perceived value of the practice grew, since it was thought that it could help Japan strengthen its young boys for battle.
Over time, corporal punishment has been increasingly rejected by the scientific and medical community around the world, and in Japan there are also many psychologists, educators and medical doctors who despite the practice, arguing that harms children and their development and is often used in fits of rage. And this is to say nothing of young Japanese, many of whom do not see the value in corporal punishment that men like Kawabuchi appear to see.
The debate and the controversy around the practice, from the Meiji Period to today, is fascinating, ongoing, and worth exploring. You can read about it in my book, Discourses of Discipline, a Japanese translation of which will be published in Japanese this year by Kyowakoku Editorial Republica.
Finally, it now appears that Kawabuchi will not be installed as the next JOC chief, perhaps as a result of the public backlash surrounding the announcement that he would follow Mori. It now remains to be seen who takes the reins, all at a time when the very execution of the Tokyo Olympics still remains a big question.
