Letters To The Editor,
The Daily Yomiuri,
1-7-1 Otemachi,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8055
The unfolding story of the beating death of the young rikishi Tokitaizan by his stable mates under the direction of his stable master, Tokitsukaze, defies the imagination with its mushrooming depravity. I worry that this horrible tale is not exceptional and that this kind of violence is, sadly, ‘normal’ in Japan - as is the initial buffoonishly amateur, incompetent and cursory police investigation of it. It looks like the whole episode exposes an unacknowledged, underlying culture of death in Japanese society that was only accidentally exposed in the media. Observers of Japan can bear witness to the violence (ignored) and the crime (under-reported and unprosecuted) that saturate this society, and which invalidate the myth of Japanese social harmony, safety, and efficacy. But for Japanese, ignorance is bliss in this regard since acknowledgment would seriously compromise the cultural mythology. The sad death of Tokitaizan is probably not exceptional, but only the tip of the iceberg, not just in the world of professional sumo, but in every aspect of life. Politicians and educators talk about teaching youngsters about the preciousness of life, but as a culture, Japan seems to have a deficiency of it. And, how things seem is paramount here, isn’t it? But I could be wrong.