Abstract

The present paper aims at proving the expansion of the public conscience of the post–truth era to Japan, by proving the fact that there are still some public authorities that deny their public responsibility for the mistakes they make by coming up with ‘alternative facts’. As secondary issues the present study also introduces the main stages of the evolution of the concept of post-truth around the Western (U.S. and UK) and Eastern (Russia) worlds, ending it by presenting a case of troublesome cultural heritage of the Post War Japanese society: ijime (‘bullying’). This phenomenon generated a public debate in Japan in the 1980s, yet there are still many cases of public denial of ijime manifestations, as well as of assuming responsibility for failing to solve these conflicts. A moral issue which the present paper raises consists in underlying the opposition between the Japanese macroeconomic success and international assessment of educational excellence on one hand and the crushing reality which makes some schoolchildren in Japan feel extremely unhappy – to the point of suicide, on the other hand. The question raised by such a reality may prompt some of us to consider any Japanese over-optimistic public discourse as displaying the general conscience of the post-truth era.