Japan Today
Since 1952, the Japanese government has annually hosted a Cherry Blossom festival, or Sakura, at Tokyo park to welcome the arrival of spring and to honor members of the public for their accomplishments. In 2019, the total spending reached around 55 million yen, or $504,000 USD.
In the last event, however, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's opposition argued that most of the invited were of his own supporters, essentially to entertain them. Questions were also raised on the proper use of taxpayers' money.
Abe has denied his involvement in the selection process, claiming that the government decides who to extend an invitation to. In response, the government stated that it would clarify the selection process in the future, even though they denied requests for past guest lists, for they were discarded and deemed unimportant. The education ministry, on the contrary, stated that it had retained all records of past events, but nevertheless denied the opposition's requests on a basis that they are merely "only recommendations and include a lot of personal information." For next year, Abe has himself cancelled the next Cherry Blossom festival as a result of the backlash.
Cancelling next year's festival seems highly unnecessary, for Abe could simply ensure that more of the opposition is included. This is, however, merely an opinion from all the way across the Pacific; Japan's customs widely differ from our American customs.
5 comments:
I think it is really important that you brought up the idea of how Japanese customs do widely differ from the Western mindset since (if we were in this situation) we would simply extend this event to be public where people can simply enjoy Japanese culture. Japan is more particular on status. However, since this depends on the taxpayer's money it can get a bit more controversial. It would be best to continue the festival but perhaps they can fundraise money to keep it part of Japanese culture. This might be a bit more difficult since they might not be able to fundraise but I don't think its a good use of people's money.
Seeing as the event is supposed to "honor people such as athletes and celebrities for their accomplishments" as stated in the Japan Today article, I think that it was highly unnecessary and almost disrespectful for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to cancel the event. While I understand that he was attempting to decrease backlash on using taxpayers' money irresponsibly, the original purpose of festival remains relevant. It was the Prime Minister's fault for blatantly revealing that most of those in attendance were of his constituency. Since the festival is intended to honor Japanese culture and accomplished individuals, it seems more controversial to shut down the entire event rather than try and resolve the issue revolving around Abe's large constituency in attendance.
It's not surprising with the amount of backlash and criticism received from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's statement to cancel the publicly funded cherry blossom viewing next year. According to Japan Today, the even is supposed to honor the people such as athletes and celebrities for their accomplishments. Stripping away with even that is supposed to be honorable seems to be disrespectful. Part of me understands why the Prime Minister wants to cancel the event, to decrease the controversy between the way taxpayers' money was used. But, overall, I don't see the cancelation of the Cherry Blossom even to be necessary. I think there are some other possible ways to resolve this situation.
I know that we have different tradition here than in Japan, but I could imagine that they honor their traditions and seek to keep them. So, an action like canceling the Cherry Blossom festival instead of improving it which is what the backlash wants would obviously create controversy. Like the Japan Today article states, the event is used to honor athletes and celebrities on their accomplishments, but based on the event last year where many of Abe's supporters were invited to the festival, it seems as if the festival may have had its purpose sidelined. However, it is a government funded event which makes the people pay for the festival, and if they don't support it then there's a problem. But I do suppose that canceling it leaves more budget to be used elsewhere in the country.
As someone who lived in Japan from 7th to 10th grade, I can confirm that Japanese culture and their traditions are different. From what I understand, the motive behind canceling the Cherry Blossom Festival seems to have been a little misunderstood. The Japanese tend to put pride before anything else, so unlike America where such an event would be redone to suit the people's wants, in Japan, admitting that a tradition of theirs needs to be fixed would go against some of the core beliefs that many Japanese people hold. Therefore, canceling this event rather than fixing it is actually seen as more respectful by some, especially the older population who similarly to America, are involved in politics the most.
Admittedly, Abe is being selfish when it comes to this event, trying his best to avoid more controversy. He has been in power for quite a few years and has much bigger plans that he doesn't ant ruined by a guest list. For example, he has been trying to expand the government's military powers. This is a huge cultural change that Abe can not enact without lots of support, so he is desperate to keep the majority of the public happy, desperate enough to cancel an important event.
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