Sunday, March 20, 2011
Why is the Japanese Minister of Defence Wearing Overalls?
In addtion to the subtitles to what the speaker is saying, and in addition to the fact that they both read from a written speech rather than pretend to extemporize, both these leaders (one the minister for defence, the other a prefectural representative) are wearing overalls. Do they think, do we think, does anyone think that they will or should be doing manual labour? No.
All three Japanes cultural phenomena, or non-book-religion, non-logocentric phenomena, attestify to the fact that in Japan visual signs, be they subtitles on what someone is saying, the script that the person is reading, or the clothes that they are wearing, are more important than the phonemes. And this in spite of the fact that there are many Westerners that say only phonemes have meaning.
But to show their solidarity with those that are engaged in manual labour at this time of crisis, Japanese leaders choose to wear overalls.
C.f. the fact that, Japanese sports persons, no mater how much of a novice or not they are will get the right gear. Japanese sports persons some times have all the gear and no idea? What is an "idea" and how does one express it?
My heartfelt sympathy is with the victims of the Japanese earthquake.
This blog represents the opinions of the author, Timothy Takemoto, and not the opinions of his employer.