Is The Royal Family Ruining Japan?

This clip of Japan's princess Mako giving up her royal status in order to marry a commoner is going viral again, and a lot of people are questioning whether this whole traditional Japanese culture thing might be holding the country back from success now. Yeah, we gotta talk about it. This went viral again. This clip is from 2021, but let's play it. From silly to serious, I'm gonna go ahead and put anything regarding a royal family from a traditional culture in the silly category, but the larger takeaways about like, is all this being steeped in tradition, asset, or a liability? I would say that's more of a serious discussion, right? All right, everybody, we're gonna get into the main discussion at hand. Please hit that like button right now. Share this video if you like our commentary. So I guess, David, the main question that a lot of people are saying, or I guess where the discussion moved to was after seeing this viral clip, a lot of people were like, man, these old traditions in Japan are holding Japan back from success now. It was a very successful country for a very long time. In fact, it's probably the most successful hyper-traditional country in modern capitalistic world history. Right, right. But now it seems like the economy is stagnant. The people are stagnant. Obviously, there's a negative birth rate. A lot of things are not moving into the future well for Japan. But on a day-to-day basis, it's hard to say that it is still not better than your country. Anyway, like we said, guys, it's a micro thing. Princess Mako has got to give up her royal status, moving to New York, just shopping at CVS like a commoner. But like you said, it led to these other discussions like Japan was the future, but now it's stuck in the past. Japan was living in the year 2000 since 1985, but it just completely froze in that state. Anyway, guys, like we said, Andrew, we just got some quick thoughts here, and we're gonna talk about the micro of this whole Princess Mako situation all the way to a more macro discussion. But a lot of people, Andrew, didn't know that Japan still had an emperor and imperial family. Right, yeah. I mean, I don't think they have that much political power. I'm sure they have some, but they're not running the country. Actually, their main job is still to be head of the Shinto temple. And it is the oldest hereditary royal family in the world going back over a thousand years. It is still very steeped in tradition. Now, some people were comparing how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the royal family of the UK versus how Princess Mako, which interestingly enough sounds like Markle, and it almost turned into an East versus West debate. Was it very disrespectful for Prince Harry and them to like make a bunch of money and I guess trash the royal family after the leaving? Because other people were like, you know, the Japanese, they actually have respect for their imperial heritage. They would never go against it. When Princess Mako married a commoner, like a regular guy, obviously still from a good family, but they didn't like talk trash about the Japanese royal family. They just almost like quietly went into New York and they live out in the city now. Right, right, right. Do you think that that is an Eastern versus Western thing, or do you think that that's like, it is a respect thing, right? Yes, I think it is. Somebody said, you know, it reminds me of how many old cultures in the world still have this structure. America, obviously being part of the new world, Andrew, we don't have this structure. A lot of older societies, not all of them, haven't left, you know, 200 years ago behind. Right, right, right. And of course, I think Japan being such a successful country, it did kind of validate that system like, well, we are doing well in this, having the royal family, so we will just continue to do it. Right. You're saying that it's not like they really like went through that bad of a time where they needed to like just throw the whole society into revolution. What was a time when they really started questioning their system? I think really now is the time, maybe. Right, right. But a lot of people are questioning, though, even though a lot of Japan's youth, when sort of polled, they quietly wish maybe possibly Japan was a little bit different. It doesn't seem like there's necessarily a big push for change, even though technically, on a statistical level, Japan's economy has been stagnant for 20 or 30 years. Yeah, I think it's hard to demand change and also protest in Japan when it's not, I guess, maybe it's not clearly super bad because life is still good and you're still comparing it to other places. So I don't know, I guess how bad would it have to get for the youth to start like jumping up and protesting? Right, right, right. Like throwing a fit, right? Somebody also said on a micro level, Andrew, it shows how unappealing and suffocating being specifically a woman is in the royal family versus being a male. Yeah, think about it. It's so something she wanted to leave. She just left with nothing. I think the truth is, Andrew, applying sort of this Princess Mako discussion to a more macro scale on are the traditions of Japan an asset or a liability? The truth is, isn't it both? People want to visit Japan because it's this ultra advanced economy or it was hyper cutting edge in the year 2000, whether or not it's been frozen since the year 2000, that's probably true. But you don't get all the women in kimonos and all these great things that look like spirited way, Hayao Miyazaki, and then also get everything to be updated on some 2024 level either, right? You can't just have the best of everything all the time in the world, right? Right, right, right. It seems to be a balance. Um, Andrew, do you think that Japan is going to go the way of France? You know, how France is no longer wanting to have like cutting edge economies or technologies, but France is more like, oh, no, I would just sell like heritage and wines and cheeses and tourism. Ah, that's a good question. I feel like Japanese are not going to ease off the gas pedal like that. I think they have the energy to change, even though like Sony and maybe some of the car brands they have peaked, I guess. Right, they're still doing good, but they're not doing great, great. Yeah, they're not at the top of the game anymore. But just because you're not at the top doesn't mean you're doing bad, I guess. Uh, Andrew, this led to a discussion about the UK. Somebody said it feels like half of the UK is stuck in its past past glories without looking into the future. That's why they need a leader like Rishi Sunak, who's still very loyal to the British Empire, but he's an immigrant. So he's looking more forward. Because I guess like the heritage population, they might be just looking back to the Bridgerton days. Um, yeah, Andrew, the economic miracle in Asia, it just came at a different time for everybody. You would say that Japan had at first, right, then South Korea, and now China's going through it. And some people think China's slowing right now. It's almost going to Vietnam. Yeah, yeah. And obviously China being a bigger country, too. I think it's harder to see it hit the average person. I think the average person's life did get better. But it's still not like the average Chinese life is not as good as it could be. Right, right, right. Do you think Andrew that Japan's recent focus on sports and all their great sports stars almost shows that its economics are on cruise mode? Because it's almost like they're like, we don't really care that Sony's phones is not as dominant. Because we have in UA and Otani and Finland in FIBA. Maybe, um, Andrew J rock and J pop apparently stopped being good in 2008. That's the same time that the Lehman Brothers crisis hit Japan. I don't even know. And yeah, people were just saying, Listen, guys, every country has an arc. Not everybody's going to be in the hottest stage all the time forever. Right? Anyway, let's get into the comment section, Andrew. Somebody was saying this is only going viral right now in 2021. Because there's a whole Fukushima water controversy and tourism but open back up. I believe Tokyo was like number one or number two in the whole world right now in terms of like, people. So basically just the SEO on Japan is like surging right now. Oh, yeah. That's why also is that why we're talking about Japan a lot? Oh, are we just subject to search engine optimization? Um, somebody was saying, Man, I wish that Princess Mako and Kay Kimura would hang out with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, man, they could like build a really cool TV show together. About, I guess people who have left royal dynasties, right, right, right. Um, somebody was saying, Oh, actually, I got this hot take, Andrew, I actually think what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is good for the UK. You know why? Because ultimately, it'll like stick a knife in the in the monarchy. Because people are going to get so like, maybe that's their goal is to like make such a messy thing of them leaving. It brings down the whole system. Yeah, bringing down the whole system and everybody stepping up to go fix it. Sounds tough. Yeah, sounds like a tough one. I heard that the UK royal family is worth 5 billion Andrew, what if they just gave them maybe like a billion and they took the other 4 billion and did something constructive with it? Yeah, they probably should they probably should. Um, someone was saying I hate that the rules are different for me females than male royals in Japan. Um, this sort of turned into an argument about like ancient Asian patriarchy and stuff like that. Because it is I looked into it, Andrew, it's much easier for Japanese royal males, they have like less restrictions on who they can marry, even though it's like still bad to marry a commoner. But like the females have like a lot of restrictions. Right, right, right. Um, somebody was saying the Japanese would never go against the crown. And someone was saying, well, it's just like she married still a rich guy, but he just wasn't a royal. Because there's like barely any royals left in Japan. So it's not that realistic. Right? Yeah. I mean, maybe she didn't have that many options. If she was looking at the other royal men. She was like, I don't want to do the right. No, I can only pick from six people. Um, two of which might be related to you. I don't know, man. I don't know. There's a reason for those recess chins in the UK. And that's what I heard. Somebody said things need to change over there, man. Japan needs to change. They need to get with the times. And other people were like, that is what makes Japan great that they don't want to change. And of course, this turned into a big argument. And why do you think so many foreigners love Japan, but then they relocate to Japan for 510 1520 years, and then they get mad that it like doesn't change. I don't know, man, I think that like Japan is gonna rock like Japan's very confident in being Japan. Because they're just like, well, we got here doing this. So we will die doing this to instead of completely changing. We do not want to lose who we are. And what makes us Japan. Um, I would say this, they would probably take like a 90% functioning society over chasing like 1000% fair society that has a risk of breaking down. Yeah, I have the uncertainty, they're scared of the uncertainty, like you don't know, when you make major changes, what's gonna happen? Isn't this a great argument for Japan to just be like, hey, guys, we've always been on our own timeline, we've done fine. So we're gonna be on our we're gonna continue to be on our own timeline, despite what you guys think. Oh, all these studies and articles coming out about Japan falling or Japan's economy, or Japan's in trouble. They're probably just like, I don't care, because we never care. Right? Um, is that kind of like the Southern saying, come hell or high water? I'm sticking to my guns, man. This is who we are. This is how we do things. Someone said, and there was a Latina woman who was super shocked that the Royals do not hug, because it's they're just actually bowing to each other. Oh, as she says goodbye, they're just bowing. Super disconnected, cold. Yeah, amen. That is traditional Asian culture at its core. But the two sisters hug. But yeah, I mean, even some Asian families, I know that our old school don't even hug like that. Um, somebody was just saying, man, a Netflix original series loading, this would be amazing. Other people were just questioning the concept of a royal family in this day and age, period, Andrew, a lot of countries have them. They're still just rich ceremonial. But in other places like Thailand, Andrew, the king still got like, and maybe not the most all the influence compared to the house and the prime minister, but a decent amount of power. I don't know, man. I think if these royal families were still doing good things, and like they were actually truly good representatives and didn't have as much controversy, I think more people would still buy into it to an extent. You're saying that they've got too much drama and like messy behavior. Yeah, they're too like imperfect. And so then people are losing faith because they're like, well, what's so good about being a royal? You're just like anybody else. But then if they were all actually held themselves to a higher standard, I think that would be more convincing. Yo, what if they had this like proving grounds where you got to go become a commoner for like five to 10 years and accomplish something great. And then if you do, you get to go back into the royal castle. You know, like a proving grounds. Somebody said in their marriage, I can imagine she's going to argue with him like I gave up my royalty for you. And then he'll never be able to win any arguments. It's kind of a funny thing. Anyway, Andrew, from silly to serious. This was a very silly discussion, but obviously the discussion got serious all the way to like, is tradition an asset or a liability? Man, I mean, what do you think? Like, should people just break down all old traditional structures for the hell of it? Or what should happen before you break down a structure that you have a plan for a new one, right? Right, right, right. I think that that's the main thing right now. Like, I heard that a lot of like 80 year old people still run most of the important infrastructures in Japan and are like the leads of the systems. There's like a LLSD party, an 80 year olds running the system kind of sounds like America too. Yeah. And they're actually still from the great families of Japan. And a lot of the men are raised to be like hyper, like samurai patriarchal. So that's like leading to a disconnect between the average consumer citizen in Japan and the leadership. They're more like with the old, old Tokugawa Shogunate days. And then the regular people are trying to like get away from it. But is the, do the people need to like want to get away from it enough if the day-to-day is still really pleasant? Do you know what I'm saying? Does it, does, do things have to break down on a day-to-day IRL basis for people to want to have system upheaval? Because when you have system upheaval and a changing of the guard, there's always like pros and cons to it. Right, right, right. Yeah. I guess I, I don't know. I don't know. I guess for me, in my opinion, I just want to see like the second world or the third world countries that are entering the second world or the second world countries entering the first world have a chance. Like that's what I'm more interested in. Like I would never go live in Japan and we actually have relatives in our family that speak Japanese that grew, that spent many years in Japan. I'm just not going to bemoan like a former dominant world superpower slipping a little bit. Yeah. Like that's not what I put my energy to. I'm like more rooting for the little guys who like never had anything like, or maybe haven't been good for like a thousand years. You Are you kind of referring to first world country problems where it's like Japan's issues are issues for Japan, but only issues to that affect dominance, not necessarily issues that are going to bring down the entire country into like a dismantled. Yeah. Like, no, like they're still going to be fine out of Florida. So I'm just saying, so everybody can like write all these articles, like analyzing it. But I feel like the internal local people, they accept the pros and the cons, whether or not they're hyper aware. I do think sometimes the media plays up all the issues, you know, like, cause you're just like, well, it's easy to stand back and then write about all the issues that you see and then extrapolate. Oh, well in 20 years, they're not going to have any of this, you know? Right, right, right. I mean, you know, for me, I'm just congratulating Lithuania, Andrew Lithuania just beat the team USA and FIBA basketball. I mean, you could sit here and be like, well, that's why our Americans, all the best players, they're just worried about their endorsements and they're selling their shoes in China in the summer. They don't want to go play an international competition, but I'm just like, listen, guys, this is just where we're at as a country in a way. It's almost like a, it is a privilege problem to have. Right, right, right. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think of in the comments section below of the micro situation of princess Mako, you know, leaving her Royal family to become a commoner in New York. I'm sure she still has a really great life and also our Japan's traditions and asset or liability and our Royal families globally and asset or liability for their given societies. Let us know in the comment section below.