Some reminders: Japan isn’t always as wacky as foreign media wants to think it is, literal translation can trip non-linguists up, and Osamu Tezuka was a really good manga creator.
The official Twitter account of British newspaper The Telegraph greets visitors with “We speak your mind.” Honestly, that’s a pretty presumptuous statement, and a recent headline from the paper regarding Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi suggests that maybe the paper should stick to speaking its own mind, since it pretty grossly misrepresented Takaichi’s way of thinking.
On August 24, The Telegraph published an article with the headline “Japan’s PM: I’m so lonely I befriended a cockroach” and the sub-headline “Leader known for working long hours shares her sense of isolation in social media posts.” That presentation can slot pretty easily with a number of preconceptions readers might have, such as politicians being incapable of forming meaningful human relationships, Japan being a weird country, or even just a collectively low state of mental wellness in the world these days.
Here’s the thing, though. While Takaichi did post about an encounter with a cockroach and the emotional response it triggered in her, it didn’t have anything to do with the prime minister, who’s cultivated an image of being hyper-focused on her job, feeling lonely or isolated. If anything, her reaction came from the opposite sentiment, the idea that all living things are connected.
So rather than cherry pick a few key phrases and knead them into inaccurate clickbait, let’s take a look at Takaichi’s Twitter post from August 22, which formed the basis of The Telegraph’s claim the she’d made friends with a cockroach.
As I’ve written about the Prime Minister’s official residence, I’ll answer a question I often get asked: “It seems like the official residence would be haunted, so have you seen any ghosts inside it?”
I haven’t seen any ghosts, but until recently, I’d see cockroaches, and they made me scream. I never encountered cockroaches inside the official residences for members of the Diet [parliament].
After moving into the prime minister’s residence, I’ve made sure to thoroughly sweep under the dining room table, to place food trash in a bin with a sturdy lid, and to wash out plastic containers before recycling them. So when, even after all that, I saw a cockroach scurrying by my feet, it was a shock.
But I’ve loved the Osamu Tezuka manga Phoenix ever since I was a child, and have reread it many times.
Let’s pause here to talk about Phoenix. One of legendary manga creator Osamu Tezuka’s most philosophical works, Phoenix is a sprawling epic centered on the concept of reincarnation, The story takes places over thousands of years, shifting protagonists and genres from ancient historical period pieces to science fiction, but always with ruminations on looking for meaning in life, and the fundamental idea that while individual organisms’ lifespans are limited, they come together in the endless flow of time.
▼ Collected volumes of Phoenix, titled Hi no Tori in Japanese.
Now back to Takaichi’s post.
Phoenix depicts the concept of reincarnation, that lives, even if their forms change, are connected, and this left a deep impression on me as a child.
Because of that, even now, as an adult, I can’t bring myself to kill bugs, including cockroaches.
I thought, “Maybe the cockroaches running around the prime minster’s residence are in the middle of a long string of reincarnations,” so I put up with them, hoping that they’d leave the house on their own, but when I spoke to my secretary about them, he was appalled.
“It’s unsanitary. I’ll take care of them,” he said determinedly, and he carried out “Operation Combat.”
▼ Combat (コンバット) is a popular brand of commercially available roach traps in Japan.
Since then, I haven’t seen any cockroaches. I feel a little reassured, but also a little lonely, and sort of sad…
So as we can see here, at no point does Takaichi say that she “befriended a cockroach.” In fact, she says just the opposite, since screaming and wishing the bugs would get out of her house indicates the opposite of cordial feelings towards them. The Telegraph, claiming to be speaking Takaichi’s mind as “I’m so lonely I befriended a cockroach,” can’t even get the temporal element right, since Takaichi makes no mention of loneliness prior to encountering the creatures.
While we’re on the subject, it’s also worth taking a look at the Japanese word that Takaichi used for “lonely,” sabishii. Yes, the most direct way to translate sabishii into English is “lonely,” but the two words aren’t an exact match. “Lonely” often carries a connotation of being alone or isolated, but sabishii can also be used to describe a feeling where a specific absence is making you feel sad. So, for example, if you’re fortunate enough to have a large circle of loving friends and family, but still feel sad when you think about your dad who passed away, you could say you’re sabishii, but you might not necessarily say you’re “lonely.” In Takaichi’s case, you could translate sabishii as “melancholy,” and it’d also be a valid choice, since she’s talking about a sense of emptiness caused by the cockroaches now being gone, and likely having lost their lives, but not going so far as to say that they were providing critical companionship she otherwise lacks. She may be sabishii, but she’s not saying she feels isolated.
▼ Also, just to be clear, Pop, I’m not saying you’re a cockroach, so please don’t haunt me.
Taking all this into consideration, saying that Takaichi emotionally latched on to a cockroach because she has no human associates that she feels connected to is severely misrepresenting her statement, which was actually meant as an assertion that none of us exist in isolation, and that all of our actions affect others. One can debate whether or not her political policies are consistent with that philosophy, but summarizing her statement as revealing that loneliness has caused her to seek friendship in the insect world is flat-out untrue.
To be fair, in promoting its article through its official Twitter account, the Telegraph did allude to Takaichi’s musings on reincarnation. Of course, it also made sure to plaster “Japan’s PM: I’m so lonely I befriended a cockroach” over a photo of her, as though it were a direct quote, and made sure to use a picture in which she has a pensive, downtrodden, and just basically lonely look on her face.
Hey, I get it. Online media is a tough business, and compelling headlines are crucial in grabbing eyeballs, securing pageviews, and keeping the lights on for any news organization. AI translation tools have also given a whole lot of people way more confidence than they should have when writing about international cultural matters. None of that is an excuse to flip cause and effect or to jettison context in your reporting, though.
Look, Telegraph, Japan has plenty of legitimately weird stuff going on. No one needs you bending the truth to try to make up more.
Source: Twitter/@takaichi_sanae via Shukan Josei Prime via Itai News, Twitter/Telegraph, The Telegraph
Top image: Irasutoya (edited by SoraNews24)
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