Burn, Not Bury
1st December 2025
The following video features recent remarks made by a Japanese lawmaker named Mizuho Umemura about the demand by Japanese Muslims that they be allowed to establish Muslim cemeteries, in accordance with Islamic rules about the burial of the dead. She is speaking on the floor of the House of Councillors (Sangiin), the upper house of the National Diet. Ms. Umemura is emphatic that Japanese customs and hygiene practices must not be altered to suit a foreign religion, and that Muslims must cremate their dead like the Japanese do.
The issue highlights the importance of cultural confidence, which Japan displays in abundance, in contrast with the West, whose slavish knee-jerk response is that Muslim demands must always be accommodated. Anyone who objects is deemed xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist, fascist, etc.
Eighty years ago the Japanese were defeated in the Second World War, yet their cultural confidence remains strong. The Western allies won that war, but have very little cultural confidence. It’s a striking contrast, and the reasons for the difference are presumably complex — “cultural Marxism”, the Frankfurt School, the Long March Through the Institutions, etc. Yet the results are undeniable: the West is generally unwilling or unable to stand up for its traditional cultural practices, which must be deconstructed to accord with the needs of newcomers.