About three weeks ago three Japanese people were taken hostage in Iraq. Video footage showed them being held at knifepoint by a roomfull of blindfolded 'terrorists'.

It was a rude awakening for a country that hasn't been involved in an international conflict since WWII, just recently joined the Iraq war, or 'restructuring' as it's called. Especially since Japan technically doesn't have an army. The terrorists demanded that in exchange for the hostages, Japan withdraw its troops from Iraq. The prime minister said 'no' and eventually the hostages were released.

What's hard to believe is the news story linked above, where the hostages are being treated not as heroes, as they would in the west, but as criminals who disobeyed authority and caused trouble for their country. They are being charged for the expense of return flights and medical bills, as well as smeared as terrorist and communist sympathisers. A high level government employee has said that the entire episode was staged, that the Japanese paid to be kidnapped in order to cause the withdrawal of troops. One newspaper article said that their stress level is considerably higher now than it was when they were being held at knifepoint.

I don't really know what my point is here, other than that Japanese is an extremely conservative society, bound to a ridiculous degree by the rules. This shows up in school, when students come to attention, military style, before every class. It shows in office workers who spend Golden Week - the only big paid holiday of the year - at the work. It shows up when talk turns to 'big oil' or 'war' or 'save the whales' or any other political topic, where an individual opinion might go against the grain. There isn't even any Japanese press in Iraq, for goodness sake! The second biggest economy in the world doesn't have one single media represantive in Iraq, except for the freelancers, who are branded terrorist sympathisers for being there. And they're trying to help build a democracy?

Anyway, this case of the Japanese hostages has been pretty interesting, and has showed me a thing or two about Japan. Sayonarra.