I was sent scrambling for my dictionary on June 4 when Finance Minister Taro Aso declared that the different ¡±mindo¡± between Japan and other countries was the reason behind Japan¡¯s low COVID-19 death rate.
A quintessentially nebulous Japanese word, mindo denotes the standard of living and cultural level of a people, and can variously be used to refer to a population¡¯s degree of maturity in terms of intellectual, educational, and cultural levels, or behaviors.
The word ¡°mindo¡± was created during the Meiji Ea (1868-1912), a time when Japan became interested in comparing itself with other countries. Inherent in it is a sense of judgement about which populations¡¯ ¡°level¡± or ¡°standards¡± are higher or lower. that during the colonization of Korea, ¡°The Japanese deployed the mindo concept frequently to justify their unequal colonial policies and explain their rationale for excluding Koreans from the welfare and educational policies instituted in Japan proper.¡± Last week, television personality Dave Spector never to use the term on air.
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