Nationalism is Good...?

Mrs. N came to visit my mother in the afternoon. She is a former schoolteacher who knows many people in the school system here. In fact, it turned out that Mrs. N and Mr. I (who coordinates logistics of my research activities at F Junior-High) are good friends and she visits the school every week. Until now I haven’t really thought about the fact that there are many teachers around me. (I have three uncles and two cousins who are schoolteachers as well as my mother’s good friend Mrs. N and her husband.)

I told Mrs. N about a cross-national study that showed that Japanese children had negative opinions of Japan 30 years ago. She looked at my mother and said, “That’s why bad things are happening in Japan right now, isn’t it? If people cared about their own country, those things would not happen.” I was caught off guard by her words: While I am worried that Japan is heading to the wrong direction, I have never thought of the possibility of inquiring the relationship between social problems in Japan and the absence of nationalism. I always dismissed conservative politicians as anachronistic nationalists who would drag Japan into their own graves. Although I think I am right about their anachronism, they may have a point in trying to make people care about their own country more seriously. Hence my gratitude to Mrs. N who helped me acquire a new perspective.