Actress Atsuko Takahata apologizes for her 22-year-old son
As noted by the BBC, the habit of Japanese corporations to frequently make official apologies has long been entrenched and is widely known. We have all seen "sazai kaiken" – penitent press conferences where bosses of large companies, with heads bowed, read out texts of their deepest apologies and bow lower and lower. But recently, there have been more cases of Japanese parents feeling the need to apologize just as publicly for the actions of their children, regardless of their age.
At the end of August, actress Atsuko Takahata publicly and passionately apologized for her 22-year-old son, who was arrested on charges of sexual harassment. The young man was later released without charges, but before that, his mother came forward to declare her share of responsibility for her son's behavior. Something similar happened in 2013, when famous TV host Mino Monta resigned from his job after his son was arrested on suspicion of theft. "As a parent, I feel responsible," he said at a press conference.
But this ritual of public apologies is not limited to celebrities. In July 2016, after 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu stabbed 19 people at a care home for the disabled in Sagamihara, his father publicly apologized at his workplace. Earlier, in 2008, after a young man killed seven people on a street in Akihabara, his parents made public apologies for his actions, standing in front of their home.
The idea of parental apologies for the deeds of their offspring is, of course, linked to feelings of guilt and responsibility, but this tradition goes back to samurai times. In the 15th-16th centuries, Japan had a so-called "enzā rule," under which not only criminals but also their family members were punished. This is how samurai ensured the obedience of the population.
The idea of collective responsibility was further strengthened during the Edo period, between the 17th and 19th centuries. Each district of the country was divided into sections of five families, and all of them were responsible for each other's tax payments – or crimes. If someone committed an offense, all five families were punished.
Although this law was abolished when the Edo period ended in 1868, its legacy is a sense of responsibility for one's relatives, says sociologist Naoki Sato, a professor at the Kyushu Institute of Technology. According to him, this idea is unique to Japanese society, where citizens are expected to strictly follow certain rules of behavior for the sake of overall harmony. One of these unwritten rules requires that parents of criminals feel responsible to society for their children's actions, even if they themselves did nothing wrong.
Naoki Sato also notes a difference in the relationship between parents and children in Japan and in Western countries. In the West, parents consider their children separate individuals, while in Japan, children are treated more as property, and accordingly, parents feel responsible for their behavior.
Famous Japanese apologies
• In 1998, popular actress Yoshika Mita publicly apologized for her son when he was arrested for a drug-related crime. She also, on her own initiative, refrained from appearing on television for 10 months.
• In 2016, actress Reiko Takashima appeared before gathered journalists after her husband Noburu Takachi was arrested for drug possession. In her apology, she said, among other things, that as a wife, she bears responsibility for him.
• Pop star Minami Minegishi shaved her head in 2013 as a sign of remorse for spending the night with her boyfriend. The policy of her all-girl pop group AKB48 excludes romantic encounters with men.
In other countries, parents rarely make public apologies for what their children have done. But sometimes it happens.
When a scandal erupted in America over two University of Oklahoma students who sang racist songs, the parents of one of them publicly apologized for their son's actions. This was so unexpected that some newspapers wrote that it might be a good idea if other parents did the same.
But in Japan, society's expectation that parents will somehow atone for their children's sins can lead to journalists hounding the relatives of adults who have done something wrong, and society expressing its indignation towards them. The younger brother of the criminal who killed seven people in Akihabara is known to have committed suicide due to constant harassment by journalists, despite changing both his residence and job several times.
The apology made by Atsuko Takahata sparked debate in Japanese society. When reporters from the Asahi TV station asked 50 passersby on the streets of Tokyo about this case, 60% said she should not have apologized, as it was her son's problem, not hers. The same reaction was observed on social media.
"I'm tired of people apologizing for something they are personally innocent of. I would like them to either persuade their adult son to take responsibility or raise him again," one person wrote on Twitter. But the idea of public apologies for the actions of relatives is so deeply rooted in Japanese society that it is unlikely to disappear in the near future.