This is exactly the conclusion anyone who has any meaningful experience with Japan's society will draw, unfortunately most are too enamored/distracted with the superficial to see beyond that. I've never lived or gone there as post-Fukushima made all of my most meaningful aspirations unattainable, but there Society carries with it a very thinly veiled form of despotism. An almost 100% conviction rate for the commoner, yet a processional bowing for egregious offenses committed by wealthy cooperate types is seen as a mere faux pas that covers the newspaper for that week and soon forgotten and swept under teh rug to resume the whole process again.

I've had a conversation with various Japanese friends and colleagues, and after the alcohol flows and they gain confidence that I'm not just seeking to judge they all sort of draw the same conclusion that the Japanese culture as a whole have never left behind the slave mentality of the feudal era, and their society and what they're forced to tolerate reflects that. I always wondered if such order, politeness was worth the price if this is the outcome.

Luckily post-Fukushima many have started to break the mould and speak out to authority. Watching female activists going toe-toe with police in a shoving match on the street outside of the PM's house while trying to stop the restart of the plant(s) was something I didn't think was possible before, I just wish it hadn't taken such extremes to see it happen.

While I'm deeply intrigued and fascinated with Japanese culture, I have to say that Japanese Society is fucking revolting.