non sequitor.ne.jp

hmm... well I just finished reading the new year's editorial from the daily yomiuri newspaper. Something I was told a while back about the japanese style of argumentation now seems to have been right on the money. Here is a quick rundown... read it for yourself if you like (the new year's day editorial is in two parts).

I followed along through the whole thing (thanks in large part to rikaichan), as it talked about the unexpected beginning of the population decline, and some of the consequences.

The writer says that women being properly welcomed in the workplace might mean a small decrease in fertility rates (despite statistics showing the opposite to be true), but the increase in workforce would help to offset shrinking numbers of workers. Sure, I can dig that.

The writer suggests that goverment investing in hedge funds might be necessary, but that there are long-term economic consequences in becoming a profit-obsessed investor. I'm with him there too.

Energy conservation and conservation technologies will help preserve the Japanese economy, and must be considered at the individual level. Absolutely!

International cooperation will be very important for Japan in the coming era, though all illusions of an EU-like ASEAN should be quickly disgarded, as China and other Asian nations do not share the same ideologies as Japan as regard human rights, among other things. I can't disagree.

Therefore, the author argues, Japan must hurry to rearm itself, and should not wait on promises of constitutional reform, he concludes. WTF?


What that person told me and a captive audience of JETs was that japanese argumentation just doesn't progress like western argumentation. The thesis is often not presented until the end, and not well supported. Often times the very last sentence is the only meaningful one. The rest of the time, the author spends proving himself a skillful writer or a logical or trustworthy bloke by other means.
I snickered at this idea with everyone else, and thought "bullshit", but this article seems to bear out those assertions. Who'da guessed?