Word: reischauer
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Japanese students tend to hold themselves apart as a separate class and seem to believe that the only way to demonstrate true political concern is by vociferous denunciation of the present government, according to Reischauer. The result is a sort of utopian movement whose sole function is criticism, and which is separated from the mainstream of politics in Japan. The students are forced onto the political periphery not only by their class aloofness, but by stringent electioneering laws which prohibit them from ringing doorbells and participating in other such campaign activities, considered "dirty" in Japan...
...direct contrast, U.S. students refuse to allow themselves to be grouped into a single political class, and do participate in practical politics to a fair extent. The net result, in Reischauer's opinion, is that U.S. students are more active politically, and in a heal-their way, than are Japanese students. It almost invariably comes as a shock to Japanese students, he says, to learn that their American counterparts participate in campaigning, door-to-door canvassing...
...despite much misunderstanding of the United States, the Japanese are greatly interested in the U.S., and developments here are carefully reported in the Japanese press. Not so the reverse. Reischauer feels Japan is "the most important hole in the U.S. press's foreign coverage." Ample reasons exist to explain this lack of coverage--the political scene is highly complex and difficult to report--but this doesn't lessen the problem. Yet, he cautions, "no news can also be good news." If six months pass without a big news story, "it would be a great six months...
...enjoyments which government employment has forced him to curtail only minimally is his garrulousness. When he first accepted the appointment as Ambassador, "I knew that I would have to be much more cautious in what I said." But this restriction has been much less irksome than he had feared. Reischauer estimates that he is still able to express openly about 95 per cent of what he would like to. But he admits with a boyish grin that on occasion he will preface a comment with "Well, I can't answer that as Ambassador, but if you want an answer...
...only these occasional questions for which he assumes the guise of professor. Essentially, Reischauer sees himself as a scholar, a scholar gone government, but a scholar nonetheless...