Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Historical memory and visits to Yasukuni are a recurring flashpoint in Japan, so a foreigner branding the country "militarist" easily provokes a strong reaction, layered on top of resentment toward the framing of Germany's postwar reckoning as the model to follow. That said, the original of the tourist's post and video is unverified, and the claim that "displaying wartime flags and music is illegal in Germany" is inaccurate: Germany's Criminal Code §86 and §86a target the propaganda and symbols of specific unconstitutional and Nazi organizations, with exceptions for education, research, and historical reporting, so an exhibit alone cannot be called illegal.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Rejecting imported standards (the largest share) — "Japan is not Germany"; do not equate a Nazi dictatorship with enshrining the war dead, and do not judge a different culture of mourning by one country's law.
  • Turning the criticism back on Germany — Comments argued that over-regulation and taboo have fed Germany's own far-right surge and social division: look at your own house before lecturing others.
  • A self-critical minority on Japan's history teaching — A few conceded that Japan teaches the harm it suffered but barely teaches what it did during the war.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

A German tourist's "illegal in Germany" criticism of Yasukuni

A German tourist called the shrine's exhibits "illegal in Germany" and "brainwashing," triggering pushback.

akirax小林
akirax小林
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「靖国神社、ドイツでは違法」…日本は次の世代を洗脳していると批判したドイツ人女性（中央日報日本語版） news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/77006…　#靖国神社　#A級戦犯

news.yahoo.co.jp「靖国神社、ドイツでは違法」…日本は次の世代を洗脳していると批判したドイツ人女性（中央日報日本語版） - Yahoo!ニュースあるドイツ人女性が日本の靖国神社を訪れて展示物を見た感想を伝える映像がオンライン上に公開され、話題になっている。 8日、SNSには「ドイツと日本の違い」というタイトルの投稿が掲載された。動画に登場
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Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "That's exactly why Germany is on the decline."
  • "And the result—an unstoppable far right—is Germany's problem, not ours. Germany's the one that got it wrong."
  • "It's like us going to a polygamous country and saying 'that's illegal in Japan' (lucky them, though)."
  • "Unlike Germany, we haven't dodged reparations by pinning everything on the Nazis."
  • "Even calling them war criminals—the Class-A ones just waged war; they didn't run an Auschwitz."
  • "Is there no freedom of belief in Germany? What a backward country."
  • "Germany has so many restrictions that Germans themselves are suffering under them."
  • "I don't want to hear it from Germany, which pins it all on the Nazis and plays the victim."
  • "It's true we're taught about the harm Japan suffered, like the atomic bombings, but we're barely taught what Japan itself did during the war."
  • "Hiding it away as taboo means you have something to feel guilty about. Japan admits everything and keeps passing it on to the next generation without concealing it—that's why Japan is still at peace."