Quote Originally Posted by Sally_Hawn
I voted “Surely not” because nowadays most of the Japanese people are well educated (maybe not at your level but still…). Educated people are not that easy to be manipulated. There might be some cases of Japanese individuals or groups attacking other foreigners, but I don’t think there will be a massacre.
The Japanese education system does not emphasize critical thinking at all. In fact, it is made to reinforce group concensus and confucianist ideas of hierarchy and respect of authority. It does help a lot manipulating people. That is why Japanese people are so obedient, hard-working and complain so little (to their boss, in public, etc.). For all these reasons, I think today's Japan is not so different from Japan 80 years ago. Lots of things have changed, but they are mostly economic, material (clothes, electronics...) or superficial (hobbies), not so much in the way people think and interact with each others.

The fact that influential people like Governor Ishihara have racist ideals makes it uncertain what could happen in case of a major confusion where people stop listenning to reason because of fear or chaos.