‘KOTODAMA’ and ‘KEGARE’

The Corona Pandemic has Revealed
the Japanese Society’s Pre-modernity that has been Engraved in The People’s Deep Subconscious

　　　　　Do you know KOTODAMA and KEGARE of the Japanese culture? These are the kinds of beliefs and ways of perceiving the world that is influenced by Shinto and have been traditionally passed on generation to generation for more than 1500 years. KOTO means words. DAMA=TAMA means spirits or soul. Kotodama means the spirits of words. Ancient Japanese people believed that words have the power to realize things and events: Once you say or write some words or sentences, what you say or write will come true. Kegare means dirtiness or impurity. Ancient people thought that something bad happens to you because you have something impure. You have to purify yourselves to avoid bad events such as diseases, injuries, accidents, etc.. You also have to purify yourselves before going into a sacred place such as the Shrine. Bathing in the sea or river water is one of the ways to purify yourself. The origin of the Doll Festival on the 3rd of March was one of the purifying rituals, in which you transferred your own impurities to the paper doll by rubbing your body with the doll. People and things that were related to ‘killing’ or ‘blood’ should also be considered impure. (So basically warriors and leather craftsman were considered impure and against.)

　　　　　 At the end of this year when we are still suffering from the coronavirus pandemic and the related financial struggles, the pre-modernity of the Japanese society has come to be revealed whether we want it to be or not. Look at the following examples that show the pre-modernity of our thinking.

APOLOGY
　　　　　A lot of celebrities who were infected with covid19 got coverage on TV and web media: Most of them had a press conference and apologized for contracting the disease. That’s very Japanese. I have seen a lot of news on CNN, NBC, CBC, BBC and a lot of posts on the SNSs but no celebrity besides these in Japan apologizes for that. To whom do Japanese celebrities apologize? Why do they do so? The answer is KEGARE. They are subconsciously sorry for bringing impurity into their community or workplace. I have heard that children from the family who were related to the medical practitioners were bullied and avoided in school for the same reason. There seems to be a tacit consent among Japanese people that the impure should be excluded from society. I feel terrible about that.

RUNNING WILD AND NEVER STOP
　　　　　The government’s responses to the pandemic are too slow and pointless to support the people: AbenoMask spent ¥40,000,000,000 but almost nobody wears it. The supporting fund ¥100,000 /person paid only once is far from enough to survive. The capacity of the PCR test have still not expanded: the number of tests and the test sites have not increased as much as expected and the data collecting system and the statistics have totally failed. Then the domestic tourism boosting campaign ‘Go To Travel’ started in July, while SARS-Cov-2 spread was not completely under control in the big cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya. The campaign worked as a message to most of the people that it’s OK to go out and the infection is not so bad. When autumn and winter came, the number of the positive cases has surged and the hospital beds are now getting full. In spite of that, the campaign is still carrying on now though PM Suga announced that it will be stopped from 28th to 6th.
　　　　　There is one thing in common in all those failures: They start everything very late, but once started, they cannot stop it because they have no plan B or an exit plan in advance. I think that KOTODAMA belief influences the Japanese people a lot to act like this.

Japanese traditional behavior interferes with the right decision making
　　　　　The bases of the risk management and risk communication are to imagine the worst-case scenario and prepare for it. Japanese people, however, are very poor at assuming the worst-case because they feel deep in their minds that if worst things are said, they will come true. They consequently underestimate the risk without evidence and they never make plan B, C, or exit plans.
　　　　　The coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of facts to light: the Japanese society is still pre-modern and even politicians, medical examiners and bureaucrats, who are said to be the smartest persons from the high level of universities, tend to think in unscientific ways. The most important thing is that most of them are not aware of those facts.
　　　　　It is said that some mutated variants of the coronavirus are found in Britain, Italy, and some other western countries. The new strain is 40-70% more contagious than old ones. How could the Japanese government assume the worst-case scenario and take any effective preventive measures? Anyway, there is little hope. The Prime Minister Suga announced a few days ago that next year the Olympic Games would be held expressing triumph over the novel coronavirus.

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