Ejovi Nuwere

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I’m about to board my flight. I just started reading a interview of world renowned artist Takashi Murakami. I haven’t finished the article but he gives a very interesting analyses of Otaku culture in Japan.

But, in my view, otaku is discriminated against in the contemporary Japanese society. The latest example of the discrimination is the suppression of the Aum Cult. They committed murder. However, religion usually seems to have the latent nature of ideological war which makes people kill each other. It occurred in the present Japan and caused widespread fears. I am not taking Aum Cult’s side. However, I’m not surprised that Aum Cult emerged in Japan and that it was connected to otaku culture. Most of the newly developed cults consist of people like the otaku because they are so severely discriminated and alienated that they either choose to join these cults or create new cults in their desperate search for salvation.

What I find most interesting is not the fact that Otaku may be more inclined to join cults, but that they are likely to join them because they are so often discriminated again. The culture of Otaku is glamorized in a way by westerners in Japan and who are interested in Japanese culture. But often when I joked with Japanese that I was a computer Otaku they made strange faces, almost signs of disgust like I made a bad joke. It looks like the negative feelings about Otaku are much stronger than I imagined. The complete interview is here.

See you in Japan.