Nearly half a century after Edward Said published his landmark book ¡°Orientalism,¡± his central insight remains strikingly relevant.
Said argued that the ¡°Orient¡± was often presented by Western media, academia, literature and institutions not as a collection of complex societies but as the West¡¯s contrasting mirror image ¡ª irrational rather than rational, emotional rather than pragmatic, culturally driven rather than strategically motivated, backward rather than modern.
Japan, despite being one of the world¡¯s most technologically advanced democracies that hosts more American troops than any other U.S. ally, has never entirely escaped the Orientalist framework. In news reporting, that framework operates through subtle narrative framing and language choices.
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