Changing Japan: The Voice of Protest

I recently witnessed a Middle East protest outside Shinjuku station in Tokyo. What impacted me most was not the issue or the protester's cause, but the manner and style of the protest.

In my 35 years in Japan, I have observed many protests including the anti-nuclear movement during the Fukushima crisis. They are all "very Japanese" in nature - calm, organized and predictable. However, this protest was loud (obnoxiously so), in your face, and overwhelming. That is surely what the organizers wanted. Message received. But who were the organizers?

If their goal was to be heard, they achieved it. But from the reaction of bystanders I saw, then the opposite was surely the result (if sympathy to their cause was the target). "Urusai" was what I heard two different groups say as they walked by.

All of this brings up a number of issues as Japan continues to allow growing numbers of non-Japanese to live in Japan. Chief among them, how will Japan manage what comes with global integration, namely the changing of traditional culture and norms? My suspicion, from what I know of how many Japanese leaders think about the immigration/migration issue, is to continue to limit overall numbers so as not experience the social disruption seen in the West.

Looking at the Middle East protests currently going on at campuses in my native USA, I am also curious how Japanese authorities would handle similar gatherings were they, too, to turn violent. It is just a matter of time until similar circumstances come to Japan.

I was having lunch with a doctor from the USA last weekend. He specializes in trauma cases in Emergency Rooms in Detroit. He told me Japanese hospitals regularly send a few young Japanese doctors to ER facilities to get trained because there a very few gun, knife and other such trauma incidents in Japan. I would think Japanese police do the same thing, too.

As the non-Japanese population of Japan approaches 3% and 30 million tourists come to Japan annually, Japan can anticipate more social change. Are authorities ready?