Internalized Oppression occurs when people think their culture is inferior than the dominant culture. I thought that many Japanese people feel this. Some people say, with no reason, Western culture is BETTER! Why? I won't say that Japanese culture is better. Becuase there is an assumption that there is no such thing as BETTER culture. Culture doesn't necessarily mean Nationality, but every social identity, including, sex, gender, age, religion etc. I thought of the reason why many think that way and came up with 3 reasons. First is, because of the media. There are a lot of T.V programs that focuse on Japanese Style of doing thing. Education style, communication style are one of the examples and they have been critisised by many authorities. When people watch these programs, they would automatically assume that Other cultural way of doing thing are better then their own. The second reason I thought was, the affection from Native English speaking teachers who come to Japan to teach English. I'm not saying all of them, but few, like the teacher I had last year, who always said, "Don't be Japanese" He emphasized that American culture is better than Japanese culture. That might be one reason. And the last reason is, young people thinking that American Style is cool. I certainly have this way of thinking. Some people try to assimulate to the culture. It is easy to say I don't like Japanese style when they are accused from other. And people including me do that. I think it is time for Japanese to be proud of being Japanese. If you have a chance please read Keisuke Honda's interview article.
Jin