Japanese Culture

While obviously a large amount can be said about the cultural anthropology of **japan** as a whole, this page will mainly be related to a few things that heavily tie to the games, specifically in its depiction alignments. Such as the post war situation and certain trends it developed, as well as how japan in general viewed the west, and the ideological connotations of it facing an issue of whether to hold to its traditional values versus adopt more modern global ones that are also influenced more from the outside.

For the new religions view the japanese new religions page.

## The basis of the alignments

Understanding the situation that japan found itself in in the earlier 1900s is actually fairly important for understanding the alignment dynamic. In the early 1900s, faced with the modernist west, japan was having an existential crisis over whether it should adopt western more egalitarian values, double down on its past warrior values, or do a mix. Obviously how egalitarian the west was in the early 1900s was limited, but western values here refers not just to what tangibly existed in the west, but the values found in western philosophy, and how it compared to the very hierarchical dynamic that japan had thus far.

In smti law is depicted as coming from the west, and chaos as a throwback to older values. And neutral exists in an uneasy tension between them. The alignments are like this depiction of choices japan considered taking, moving into the future. Although law here is taking this idea of concerns that for japan, adopting these western values means losing your own culture, and mixed with a more extreme idea of egalitarian values taken to such an extreme that it inhibits ambitions.

This isn't merely a small aspect of the alignments, but the entire story of smti is structured around this metaphor, and this bleeds through to many future games as well. Smti opens with a world war II parallel, as well as an indirect depiction of figures who existed past that time. And the depiction and tone of the sides carries these connotations. In a negative sense this can also be used as a critique of the series, in terms of how this can be seen as apologia that softens the role of Japan in world war ii.

## The geography of thought

The geography of thought is a book that details many of the differences in thought and language that exist in the east and west. While it is not tied to japan in particular, focusing on east asia as a whole, it is useful to explain some distinctions between eastern and western thought that contextualize japan in general. It focuses on trends that differ not only in modern day, but which show that the east and west have had very different connotations of how to view the world even since prehistory.

Although the reasons are not entirely known for certain, it speculates that these differences relate to the ways their societies were structured, due to the eastern mode of crop raising being something that you can only really do collectively, which makes you think of yourself as defined more by your group, whereas western farmers were capable of working individually, and even moving around more easily. Notably however, defining you just by your group used to be more of a thing in the west as well, but this was not to as large an extent, and was changed in large part due to influence from greek philosophy.

One major difference is that the west focuses more on static things that have their own identity, whereas the east focuses more on relationships and dynamic change. This is manifested in how in japanese there isn't really a single word for -I- in the western sense, only different groups that identify which of a specific group or person you are. So your definition and even self identity and means of expressing it inherently is tied to how you express yourself in groups. In continuation with this, western children tend to learn nouns faster, whereas eastern noes focus more on verbs. Tying to worldviews that relate to a world of things versus a world of actions. The distinction between identity existing individually versus in terms of relationships or dynamic change, and the scale of each is one that bears interesting metaphysical connotations.

This has both moral and metaphysical connotations if one considers this tied to actual distinct understandings of the world, as the cultures tended to rather than merely ways of using language. Western society historically tended to see people as metaphysically discrete and persistent, whereas the east saw them as changing, and often connected, such as the idea of brahman in which all beings share one oversoul. The east tends to see people more as continuous with their environment in both a moral and metaphysical way. As well as with nature. For instance, the idea of "unnatural" in the western sense was the invention of the greek idea of nature which was the arbitrary designation of the distinction between what happens in the world and what only humans do. But in the east they see humans as continuous with nature. With the focus more on whether this flows properly, rather than the idea that something can be inherently unnatural.

Obviously in the ethical sense this results in a distinction between ethics that focus on the individual's actions as their own thing versus their relationship to something larger. Eastern ethics tend to treat ethics about your relationship to a larger picture and making it flow harmoniously, whereas the west is more about specific actions and your personal virtue. For instance, eastern ideas like confucianism focus on your relations to others in society. In taoism it focuses on your relations to nature. even accountability is viewed this way, since asians are more likely to say that accountability is related to your situation, where a bad situation can cause bad actions, whereas the west tends to talk more about your personal virtue. More information about ethics in the ethics section below.

One thing that comes up is that since the east focuses on ethics on the group level, some ask why they tend to reject more cosmopolitan or big picture moral thinking in favor of your own group. But it helps to know that multiple types of group thinking or even collectivism exist. To see yourself as related to your environment can imply your immediate environment. Which can make your focus be on making your personal world flow well, rather than relating to things in the far off sense. This is the distinction between vertical collectivism, which focuses on your ingroup and close relations versus horizontal collectivism which focuses at least on paper on the big picture. Group level ethical concerns don't inherently imply total big picture thinking.

One way that this distinction between the static versus change comes up in the games is in how law is a more western depicted side whereas chaos is more eastern. and law obviously focuses on what is static and can be preserved, whereas chaos is about a dynamically changing world. These views not being distinct metaphysical ones necessarily, but rather ethical focuses. This also relates to even how the east and west see good and bad luck. The west thinks that a good thing will be followed by another good thing, and a bad thing will be followed by another bad thing. But the east sees it in reverse, seeing a good thing as likely to be followed by a bad one and vice versa. So for this reason the idea of a static utopia shows up more in western ideals, being more alien to eastern thought. And so is reflected in the more western themed law.

This also ties to how the west uses linear thinking whereas the east thinks of things in cycles. This is why reincarnation is taken more as a given in many eastern religions, whereas the west thinks of afterlives as permanent. The games of course tend more towards the eastern view, though they depict individual worlds as distinct realities so that things can seem linear from within a single reality sometimes even if in the long scale it is like a cycle. But in eastern religions, your stay in heavenly realms can last billions or trillions or even more years, so all of that is still compatible with a cyclical view. Megaten also tends to not depict identity as totally discrete. So in keeping with the eastern origins of the series, many aspects of it do lean more towards an eastern view. Though notably the idea of identity as non-discrete has been making its way into modern western philosophy recently as well such as with figures like parfit.

The mode of understanding and epistemology was also different. The west tends to value logic more, but the east values direct experience more. And the east often treated logic less as an absolute, and more as a concept of informal logic. For instance, the east tended to allow the idea that seeming contradictions were true, because its point was that the statements were not absolute, but that the conflict pointed to a larger picture. This tying to what the ideas of yin and yang represent. Neutral of course looks more eastern and is based on these taoist concepts of complementary attributes. And this is reflected in the games as a whole, and seeing law and chaos as tied together in this way. Which is more of an eastern veneer, especially when factoring in that neutral is atlus' chosen side.

## Japanese ethics

While the ethics page on this wiki talks about what many of the alignments are associated with ethics wise, something that is worth independently talking about of course is why atlus divides things the way they do. Since some divisions at first seem counter intuitive to the west, such as how law is depicted as more western looking, and chaos as more eastern looking. But atlus has reasons for doing this.

### Harmony

First to understand eastern ethics in general, they revolve heavily around a concept referred to as **harmony**. This concept has to do with how their approach to ethics has less to do with specific individual things deemed right or wrong in a vacuum, and more about harmonizing yourself with your surroundings in a way so as to not cause harm by relating to them wrong. This has to do with the east's more group focused rather than individual focused ethics in general. Harmony can exist in various circumstances. For instance, confucianism is about harmony in society, and properly relating to others and those around you. Taoism is about harmony with nature. Relating to the world in general.

Due to harmony being more about a mode of interpersonal interaction, eastern ethics tend to focus less on finding the absolute truths of the matter, and more on how to apply principles to the specific instances. Since harmony is about your relations, one aspect of this is that it is expected that if people have different concerns, that this will result less in a discussion or debate about who is right, and more that it should be about harmonizing how to accommodate these concerns. And so it is seen as rude to outright say that your opponent is wrong, as if you have an eternal truth, rather than approaching it pragmatically. Note that while this has an ostensible tone of meeting in the middle, in practice this is not always what it means. For instance, since asian society is very hierarchical, the concerns of higher ranked people are seen as inherently more pressing, and harmony should trend towards them since that is simply how the social order works. Because deviating from the structure of hierarchy was often seen as you simply being the one disrupting the harmony too much.

Right away this gives some context for how to understand neutral. The language used in neutral is not language that presupposes that it found a truth, but rather language that presupposes that it found a way to accommodate the concerns of both sides. And this is a direct reflection of these eastern approaches. In contrast, atlus' depiction of the other sides, especially law are depicted more like they are more specific and claim to be touching on at least to some degree a specific truth about value. While these elements might be lost to a western audience the japanese perspective considers doing so inherently bordering on an extreme mentality. In IV, isabeau calls law a monistic extreme, saying that it is coming from the angle of a single value or perspective, rather than working on harmony.

This ties to the approach atlus seems to take in general, which depicts law and chaos as if you think they are meant to seem alienated from the concept of individual human dignity. Because by placing these values as absolute they treat them as such even in ways that involve death, instead of deferring to other perspectives. Which highlights how many in asia see this view as central, and the consequences of violating it.

This concept may also belie some of how the games despite claiming to be about grey morality tend to depict things more black and white. The concept of grey and grey morality normally ties to the concept of choice. Something focused on more in the west, whereas in the east your place in society is seen as something you are born with. With less of a focus on choice. Since the nature of this greyness stems from the idea of being born into a world with no set answers, existentialist themes tend to take a different tone in the east. And so veer back to the concept of harmony and the idea that grey situations have answers based in harmonizing the grey elements rather than needing to make more of a firm personal decision. This lack of a focus on personal choice may also belie the fact that in games like IV, despite the ostensible existentialist slant, on neutral a large focus is placed on national identity and the need to restore japan, as if identity comes with these pre set larger associations.

### East and west

Something to note is that in SMTI chaos was associated less with individualism than it tends to be in later games. While the identity of law being associated with peace and happiness, and chaos focusing on self determination were already present, in SMTI chaos focused on self determination not just on an individual, but a group level. While this alone is interesting in that it shows how the japanese focus on self determinism isn't always associated with overt individualism in the same way we would think in the west, it also gives a bit of context for why law and chaos are associated with the west and east respectively in the first place.

One big facet of asian ethics is that while it does focus on groupthink, it also focuses heavily on the ingroup. Most often your family and close relations. The concept of an outsider in certain asian countries implies a person you do not have obligations to. These groups are not only ingroup focused, but heavily based in hierarchy. Something taken from confucianism which has an ethics based specifically on your role and relation to those hierarchically above and below you in your group. Asian ethics tends to lack a focus on cosmopoliotanism, or a focus on helping outsiders. Compared to the west it also has less of a focus on egalitarianism, tending to more explicitly focus on hierarchy. Note here that the alignmens are both associated with general areas of the world in general, as well as certain religious ideals depicted as an absolute. So it is not just about asian culture, but also aspects of confucianism, taoism, and zen. Speciically that of imperial way zen as it was radicalized itself into supporting imperial japan and its steep hierarchies. More information of which is on the ethics and buddhism pages.

From this, you get a shape of chaos' association with the east. In SMTI, while chaos did still have a bit of individualistic elements already, it was more focused on the self determination of the group. This social darwinist aspect had groups focusing on self interest, and a steep internal hierarchy which is like an exaggerated interpretation of asian ethics. Note that in SMTI chaos was focused less on christian demons, and more on being eastern in general. the gaians looked eastern, their temples looked buddhist, its main figures were nio, yama, asura, and lucifer was not fought directly. Interestingly as chaos shifted to focus more explicitly on individualism in the later games it also focused less on eastern demons and more on fallen angels.

This isn't to say chaos is super close to asian ethics. While it does embody ingroup and hierarchy, as well as some concepts from taoism and zen like naturalness, its unstable nature and glorification of overt shows of passion as well as feeding on them tends to make it not perfectly asian in tone. Even from the beginning, while it was depicted as somewhat asian, it was also depicted as a deviation. and more individualist figures like lucifer were also always present. So it was always depicted as a kind of deviation that is an extreme of certain asian ideals, but mixed with an extreme satanic bent.

The depiction of law as western might seem to conflict with western society as a whole. But it does embody certain aspects. For instance, law claims egalitarianism in a way chaos does not. and this reflects how western society at least ostensibly claims to do so more when compared with the east. Western society is also more likely to intervene in places, whereas japan is often more isolationist.

But it is also about certain ideas as they relate together. For instance, the japanese heard about utilitarianism and socialism from the christian missionaries who came from the west. And so these ideas are all tied together with the concept of a more egalitarian and cosmopolitan ideal that the west claimed to have. (Though note for law as well that the more socialistic and utilitarian aspects were not as explicit of aspects of it in smti either, instead developing over time). While socialism was tried more in eastern countries, places like japan still consider it more of an idea derived from western ideals of egalitarianism. It was a long standing discussion in japan in the early 1900s whether it should hold to its old ways, adopt these new ones from the west, or choose a balance between them. This is reflected in why chaos is associated with the past, and law is depicted as alien and like an outside force bringing forth new things that would transform japanese identity.

In addition to these social reasons, like how chaos embodies aspects of hierarchy and naturalness derived from eastern religion, law embodies things derived from western religion. For instance, when christianity was founded, the acts of the apostles depicted the ideal christian society as a proto-socialist commune, and expected people to do great deals for the sake of others to make an overall more peaceable society. And this, as well as the more law focus of judaism gives context for law in general, as well as how western society and religion is often seen by the east. But like chaos, it is again, not 1:1 since it tends to leave out the individualist element that is normally seen in the west, and also gives it a more stoic tone in contrast with the west's larger focus on passion and personal ambition.

This is also focused in the language and even the metaphysics of the east and west. The west tended to see the world as static things, where the east tended to see it as dynamic change. And saw stability as fleeting or unchanging. With religions like buddhism even heavily placing the nature of all things being impermanent as a major focus. This is reflected even in real life in the west having more of a goal of trying to reach an ideal state, whereas the east saw such a static view as less of a worldly possibility. And so this is reflected in how law is associated with order, the static, and preservation, whereas chaos is associated with change.

To go back to neutral, of course one aspect of taoism is its large focus on not seeing things as monistic, but seeing the dual aspects of everything, taking the good with the bad etc. The reasons this would be associated with neutral are of course straightforward.

### Conformity and nonconformity

One of the issues in terms of trying to make sense of the alignments has to do with trying to make sense of their loose political dynamics. Obviously due to being based on magic and plans that they are knowingly capable of putting into action they tend to be divorced somewhat from real world politics due to real world politics being based on things that its not always clear how it can work out. In context, the alignments endings in many ways are more about values than they are politics. With their political dynamics being a manifestation of those archetypal values, and what things represent them.

Law obviously focuses on ensured peace and happiness, and chaos on libertine impulse and ability to manifest different outcomes with it. Since these things are hard to convert to specific political dynamics due to the ambiguity over how to achieve certain goals, there is obviously ambiguity over their political dynamics also. Since how they act before the apocalypse is left ambiguous, with the focus being placed on what happens after radical transformation.

That aside, law seems to be depicted politically as some far left ideas but mixed with a socially conservative type presentation. And chaos is a mishmash of far right ideas and a few leftist drives that relate to nonconformity, free action, and the idea of liberation. Neutral obviously being somewhere between. This description is not perfect, and the means in which these groups manifest these ideas are presented as very different from their real world counterparts, in part due to being based on many ideas that don't cleanly fit into normal political concepts, such as utilitarianism. But they are a loose means for understanding the sides. The ambiguity of these alignment depictions is of course intentional to some degree. To some degree this divorces them from real world political groups by presenting a dynamic that seems slightly alien. But it also has to do with archetypical absolutes.

For instance, the obvious basis of the groups is in their literal name. Law (for order) and chaos. As such, it is associating certain political things with these ideas. It is making the point that conservatism and socialism are both based on a kind of promise of a certain order if a certain system is maintained. Whereas the far right views and the aspects of anarchy they associate together are based on the idea of supporting your free right to do certain things without consideration of being stopped by the system if one disapproves of the consequences. Real world ideologies are of course normally composed of aspects of each of those drives. The way they are seen in game is juxtaposed by conflating very different things together to depict archetypical absolutes. As such, their manifestations in game are not meant to be identical to their real world counterparts, but to be depicted in ways that related to the values they are trying to express.

From a japanese perspective, an important means of understanding this is based on certain asian ideas of social conformity. And noting that these associations are based in part by the japanese lens that views them based on how they apply to the logic of the group vs the individual. The interesting thing here is that when first introduced in SMTI a major way the alignments were depicted was this idea of conformity versus nonconformism. And even once you veer all the way forward to the depiction of the quasi alignments in persona 5, the law analogue is still based on the idea of social order, and the more chaotic villains on screwing it for personal benefit. (The heroes ironically also deviating, but for different reasons). These depictions have to do with asian group logic. Asian group logic considers certain aspects of pushing for group benefit to be based on the idea of the good of the group. and in contrast to this, the degree to which it is considered acceptable for people to deviate from their group and social roles is tied to a degree of considering violation of this potentially harmful to the bigger picture.

The interesting thing about this is that this would be different from a western view. From the context of the west, the idea of subverting the social order is not depicted as something associated with worse consequences for the sake of freedom, but something that can lead to better consequences overall. This asian perspective presupposes that certain things that are pushed for the sake of the group are for the best, and that the question is one of which violation of which is a case of freedom versus the larger group's needs. It seems like one of the major issues is that atlus is depicting that that thinking people should be free to live certain lifestyles is inherently slanted towards being egoistic. It doesn't necessarily consider that this is wrong per say. (presenting it as if there should be a balance) But that this depiction related to the presumption of prioritizing the group. This is something that, especially in the west occasionally gets criticized in this depiction for depicting the support of certain types of nonconformity to relate more to harmful extremist groups, rather than a more mundane fact that many are not actually harmful to society at large. But again, since the games are so archetypical, atlus is not necessarily depicting this as a literal fact of how ideology works, but merely using it as symbolic representations of it.

This also manifests in how atlus uses a depiction of strict border security as for the larger good. Which is based on a heavily japanese, and often considered xenophobic view. For instance, in IV, preventing those who carry demonic knowledge from entering mikado is presented as necessary in order to preserve the peace. While it makes sense in the context of the games, due to a plot element being that in this case it would actually do so, one can compare this to japan's views on preventing much immigration in general, seeing it as for the larger good of the country. But this is something that many would criticize as a misleading and harmful view held by many in japan. Whether atlus means to present these as literal manifestations of those ideas as if they bear those associations in real life, or to what degree, versus using them as hypothetical examples is however left ambiguous. Regardless, while atlus is seen as expressing some views that veer on xenophobic themselves, in this case you were meant to reject that plan of action. But the associations it is given regardless are what is being focused on.

One thing worth noting here however is that it seems like there would be a contradiction between law representing group logic in a way familiar to the east if it is depicted as western. This relates to the certain type of big picture thinking law represents such as that depicted in utilitarianism. In the east, the bigger picture logic is merely group logic and based on the preservation of your group (and not even always the benefit of its members, which is something often criticized). The idea of big picture thinking as manifested in systems such as utilitarian, socialistic ones, or cosmopolitan ones are considered ideals that are opposed to that of caring about your more specific group. So they are simultaneously considered alien to the east, but at the same time a kind of extreme of the big picture thinking in a way that they reject. So it is simultaneously seen as too foreign, as well as too extreme of the eastern ideals of collectivism, such that it is more wide scope than is seen in the east. Which leads to the balanced neutral perspective that is meant to be seen as the ideal presented as the "true" japanese one.

Law and chaos are not fully west / east of course. But are manifestations of certain absolutes that they associate primarily with them. But are obviously designed primarily to represent the archetypical absolutes. Understanding the eastern perspective is important however for understanding the specific examples used to frame them. But it is important not to see the sides as representations of any single idea, due to being depicted as being composed of many which overlap, and manifest in different ways, some of which are very different from their real world counterparts.

## Kakure Kirishitan

**Kakure Kirishitan** is a term to refer to christianity as it existed in old japan when it was illegal, punishable by death. Since it was driven underground it had lost contact with the catholic church it derived from, and over time became a syncretic sect, including aspects of ancestor worship of their earlier japanese martyrs, and veneration of kami. Although the games don't overtly reference this, in an interview for apocalypse they talk about how it existed in the backstory, and set up the events of the game. And since the law side is sometimes seen with amatsukami working with angels, and influenced by a japanese perspective it implicitly has elements of japanese christianity.

## Modern Japanese history

An important element for understanding the alignments in their introduction is understanding how they relate to modern japanese history leading to and past the events of world war II. While this element of the alignments has shifted over time, the beginning of SMTI was overtly a world war II parallel which showed analogues of events that tie to it. The nukes used by thor obviously related to the idea of america using the nuclear bombs, saying that doing so would save more lives long term. And gotou both represents aspects of imperial japan, as well as other aspects of chaos represent a response to the loss of it.

Leading up to the war, an important concept to understand for japan was imperial way buddhism or imperial way zen. Imperial way zen was part of the radicalization of japan leading to the war which was tied to the war being seen not just as a military situation, but a holy war or crusade for the expansion of the empire in the name of the divine emperor. Japan's culture was heavily invested in this war such that losing it totally transformed the country overnight, including in a religious way, since the emperor was forced to declare himself non divine, essentially destroying much of the religious dynamic.

One thing that happened at the end of the war was america basically forcing japan to draft a constitution that forbade it to have a military or to wage war. Though that state lessened over time with the establishment of the japanese self defense force. This can contextualize aspects of how law is depicted in-game. This de facto banning them from further war ties to the idea of america in SMTI pushing for an idea of eternal peace through the ideology of law. Many in japan saw this push as overbearing and unnecessary precautions, and as destructive to its national identity. But it was considered necessary by the west in order to prevent further tragedy.

Understanding chaos also relates to how certain groups reacted to the post war situation. Many rebelled against the transformation of japan into a more peaceful and less aggressive society. Especially those who were specifically radicalized in the military such as kamikaze who were trained thinking they would never return, and had a hard time adapting to post war society in a situation where their aggressive mentality was now out of place. Many of them were unable to adapt to the post war situation, and became part of criminal organizations or gangs like the yakuza.

One specific trend that is a heavy basis for chaos is the Bosozoku. One post war group who had trouble adapting to the new situation became the heavy basis of a biker gang known as the thunder tribe. Over time this warped to a later larger group known as the bosozoku who peaked in the 1980s. Many of these were former kamikazi pilots who thought that they were forsaken by the now more pacified japan, a world that they had no place in, and sought to keep alive japan's warrior spirit. But ultimately are a criminal organization of a similar nature to the yakuza. Who many former bosozoku ultimately end up joining.

The bosozoku appropriated the imperial symbol of the rising sun, either on their motorcycles or clothes, and ideologically meld a combination of the pre-meiji restoration times idea of the samurai with the radical utranationalism of world war II with aspects of being a delinquent and countercultural. Seeing this counterculture as a rebellion against the modern world. The groups are often composed of younger members, with many graduating beyond them past their twenties. They consider themselves the protectors of Japanese traditions and its warrior spirit which have been abandoned by mainstream society. Like the samurai they see themselves as roving groups of warriors who while they might be at odds with eachother, and other gangs are all part of the larger japan, protecting its national identity. Often using the concept of yamato-damashii to explain what they are protecting. A term that means something like "japanese spirit" and was a nationalist concept akin to the german idea of master race, holding japan as a uniquely great place with a spirit of warfare and superiority.

Right off the bat it should be obvious how this contextualizes the nature of chaos as it is introduced in SMTI. Since it has both a tone of nationalism as well as being counter cultural and some individualism, with various chaotic groups being at odds with eachother but coming together to defend the larger group as a whole. After the nation of japan collapses in SMTI the idea of nationalism in its prior sense erodes, but this contrast between the warrior spirit and samurai like groups who are at odds with eachother, but being part of a larger whole when necessary remained. Chaos actually has multiple units in both SMTI and II on motorcycles to represent this, so its ties to japan's history of biker gangs is fairly overt. This also contextualizes the contrast between the gang member of ozawa joining with the nationalist gotou.

Interestingly, note how despite talking about bringing back traditional values, aspects of it are more modern and reflect similarly how chaos claims the same, but intends to do so in a more modern paradigm most of the time. For instance, while the rank of classical samurai was set more in stone, the bosozoku being based in gangs have a more dynamic ranking, where your rank can raise via your own strength and weight, and conquering more territory from other gangs. They are also more gender egalitarian than traditional warriors, often also having female riders who are similarly engaged in the violence. So this more modern counter cultural and dynamic mode of power and rank is more tied to chaos than a purely traditional format. Though with the ultimate goal of chaos being to turn a dynamic like that into a large scale civilization based thing rather than a counterculture. Which many with these radical views in the bosozoku likewise intended to do, similarly how in the west, nationalist gangs also claim to seek to restore their countries to a prior state of warfare and self preservation.

Another relevant group, although less relevant is called the yankii, which is a subculture commonly associated with delinquent students in the 80s and 90s that young people would often associate with. Yankii's name comes from a way to refer to americans, and is based on a presumed appropriation of "american" ideals of individuality, aggression, and trashiness. Yankiis often also use the imperial sun flag as a logo, and while they have ties to the bosozoku are considered a distinct subculture, despite some overlap. Yankiis are not as inherently tied to the ideals of nationalism, focusing in part on appropriating western ideals. This association of delinquents with the appropriation of american ideas may tie to the depiction of chaos in SMTI as having some western slants, despite being an eastern depicted group. In persona 5, ryuji is also seen with the imperial flag logo on his shoes, which can imply adopting some yankii aesthetics, though he is not depicted as related to gang violence as the tone more often implies.

Gotou himself is based on the writer yukio mishmima, which is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director. Mishima
is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th
century. Like many in post war japan, he had nationalist sentiments, and sought to bring back the warrior spirit that was seen as being lost in the move to the post-war situation.

On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Tatenokai,
under pretext, visited the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo
headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
 Inside, they barricaded the office and tied the commandant to his
chair. With a prepared manifesto and a banner listing their demands,
Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the soldiers gathered below.
 His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état
 to restore the power of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating
the soldiers, and was mocked and jeered. He finished his planned speech
after a few minutes, returned to the commandant's office and committed seppuku.

Another important group to mention is the yakuza. Figures like tayama, or ozawa are meant to also represent yakuza, specifically the fact that in many cases they had large amounts of power and stepped in as the de-facto powers in places where the government had less reach. Something that was warned against. Interestingly, in SMTI ozawa is depicted as a type of chaos, but tayama despite being based on him is depicted as dark law. But then in iva his organization was again depicted as chaos. Which can show how certain groups become in essence the new law when taking enough power. The yakuza however are a group which existed since before world war II, and like some others are declining in membership like organized crime does in many areas.

This contrast between law, neutral, and chaos reflects how the wartime japan was a radicalized chaotic situation. Outside western forces such as america forced it to become pacified to a more neutral state. But there are still those who seek to reignite the warrior spirit seeing it as lost. Especially those forsaken by society who are radicalized due to their lack of opportunities. But neutral represents a seeming balance that japan presents, presenting some of the trends in the opposite direction that are represented by law as an opposing extreme. One which stems not from japan's history, but from outside forces. Obviously japanese history is not the only source of these ideas, nor are these groups a 1:1 comparison with the alignments. Chaos obviously also takes inspiration from nietzsche, certain types of anarchists and western satanists among others. But it shows how certain trends were developed from the japanese situation that the games were reflecting.

Note that the depiction of the alignments is to some degree retroactive. Its not just a depiction of japan moving into the future, but also a depiction of its past. The confusing conflation of being rebellious and moving forward with preserving the status quo seen in neutral comes from the idea of it as a depiction of the past choice to move to what was at the time a new paradigm. And the idea of continuing on in that path that was found as opposed to rocking the boat by moving to a different one.

This also gives rise to the idea of "the cycle" in the games. Okada has talked about how he thinks of tokyo as in a special place in world history. Okada considers tokyo to have gone through several major shifts in the process of its recent evolution. And he associates this with major upheaval, such as the bombing it underwent in WWII. So the cycle in a sense is seen as a personification of the dialectical evolution of tokyo in general, giving rise to why tokyo is seen as a central place for the series to take place.

## Japanese chauvinism

One of the things that people tend to notice when talking about atlus games is that by western standards it is occasional for some of the content to come off if not racist then at least racially insensitive or xenophobic. Atlus does at times address the difficulties of racism, such as in persona 5 where anne is treated like a foreigner and it addresses standing up to the racist attitudes common to Japanese society. However, it has aspects which are at odds with this, such as a seeming dismissal of the role of japan in world war II.

One issue is its reluctance to blame anything on japan itself, either in the present or historically. Gods in game represent the ideas of the people that uphold them, but japanese gods are rarely depicted in villainous roles when compared with the gods of other religions, especially abrahamic angels and demons. Likewise for the human groups the more japanese a group looks the more sympathy is shown to it. Law looks almost exclusively western, and is shown as the least sympathetic in most games. Chaos looks dharmic, and somewhat japanese, but has many western gods in it. And is in between. And neutral is almost entirely eastern, and is presented as the most ideal view. It is associated with shinto more than any group, which is the japan-unique religion, and even has figures like masakado as one of its major gods. With another literally just being called the goddess of tokyo. So japanese things are not only depicted more sympathetically, but neutral represents not only japanese religion, but even japanese national identity. Something that is presented as important to preserve even in an apocalyptic situation where the country of japan no longer exists.

This also ties to a downplaying of how japanese identarianism has tied to japan's past war crimes and nature. In contrast to the above depiction of japan as without criticism, this sympathy given to japan is not given to outside groups or nations. America in the game is presented as an antagonistic force at times. And this is reflected in the alignments. Law is treated as western in SMTI. And chaos, while depicted as related to japanese nationalism is depicted as a deviation from regular japan in a way that law is not for anything western. With neutral representing "true" japan. So we get a depiction of national identity in which its true core is both something perannial and long standing, tied to the past, but which the aggressive world war II side of japan is depicted as unrelated to.

SMTI opens with a world war II parralel where gotou who parallels imperial japan is depicted as more sympathetic, and to some degree as the *victim* of invaders who is reacting against a real threat too hard, with nationalism being a *defense*
 mechanism. It wasn't saying he was good, but due to how closely it is
depicted as paralleling world war II, it comes off like trying to appeal
 to fears of being colonized. Which is not consistent with japan's history of being more often the ones doing the invading. Despite being based on a figure trying to restore imperial japan, the "true" Japanese essence is associated not with chaos but with neutral. Making this idea of the perennial japanese identity something that is divorced from its past harms. Note how the gaian units in i are called things like "fallen monk" and
"dark priest" implying a deviation from the norm. Even in IV, the gaians
 are implied to have stolen and taken over a temple, which distances
them from "true japan."

The games' backstories often strangely imply that bad things japan did comes from foreign influence. Demons are embodiments of ideas. But in ivas backstory the historical persecution of christians was orchestrated by krishna rather than a japanese thing. With him being stated to have gotten to japan via immigrants. And in IV a chinese godess is shown in a historically chinese part of tokyo harming people. Which again has a tone of outside ideas causing problems. In iva maitreya even talks about "foreign demons" as if it is a given that they are inherently dangerous. Which implies disruption of the country as the danger.

There is also the subtle undercurrent that the emperor is associated with law, which
in the games is depicted as foreign to japan. In IV "mikado" literally
is a word referring to the japanese emperor yet is noticeably the place
in the game without japanese culture, so masakado destroying it in
neutral is something that to a Japanese audience would be more directly
calling his actual story to mind. So masakado the hero of the people is
now associated more with true japan, and the emperor and associated
actions are "subtly" tied to outside influence story-wise. Raidou 2 even
 calls the amatsukami who brought the emperor invaders. So its once
again blaming in-story blaming the bad parts of japan on things from
outside it. Even if it is not doing this directly, the subtle naming of
the places and implied events is basically tying together japan-ness
with only its good aspects. Which is a problem because its bad aspects
are not just depicted as a deviation, but thematically tied to outside
influence.

Another aspect of IV and the seeming whitewashing of japanese history is the role of Take-Mikazuchi. take-mikazuchi is implied to have been active in world war II, but passes it off as a defensive war, and his role as merely protecting the nation. The raidou games also take place shortly before world war 2, but without
 any implication of any issues with the japanese government. In fact, 2s
 alignment system kind of implies that altruistic intentions and doing
things in the name of your country are tied together here. So it is
depicting the country not really as something that there's immediate
need to take issue with or go against. In addition, raidou vaguely alludes to being an alternate past where japan is more peacable, yet has world war ii play out the same way. Which implicitly makes an argument that it is not japan's own state that is a major driving force in these events.

There are also aspects that focus on more western things that can seem racially insensitive to a western frame of reference. for instance, law is treated as a globalist conspiratorial force, with the nationalist gotou as a underdog to it. But law is also depicted as heavily jewish looking at times, and even referred to as the jews in one interview. Which while they were merely trying to reference conspiracy theories comes off fairly close to real world nationalist antisemitism.

One more fantasy based form of seeming racist attitudes is the focus on demons. While the humanist elements in game are meant to be about human dignity, since demons actually exist in game, in many cases it comes off like dismissal of a fantasy race. It is presented as inherently disrespectful to human dignity to rely on gods or demons to help them too directly. Not merely as dangerous, but that even if it were not humans should keep to themselves. In combination with this, the games treat demon life as cheap, and killing them in most cases other than a few to not be something much attention is placed on. Whereas killing humans is depicted as a much bigger deal. Which ties a bit to the Japanese perspective to outsiders in general, that they can be this dismissive, almost coming off as if there were racist attitudes towards a fantasy race.

So while many of these things might seem incidental in isolation, and while atlus does try to be against racism at times, the japanese approach to race which veers heavily into japanese identarianism is seen as something that pervades the approach regardless. Atlus seems to take an approach which carefully avoids criticizing japan or anything japanese, and which from a Japanese perspective places japan as the ones who need to be on the defense. But to add to this, since it depicts many of japan's historical problems as not tied to "true japan" in a way that only really japanese ideas get an exemption for, and which japanese ideas in general are so important that years after an apocalypse, it can still be inherently important to restore tokyo, it comes off a bit like it is glossing over some of the connotations of these ideas. Especially since these same plots will criticize heavily ideas and things that come from external places, as is shown in its depiction of other religions, and even other countries.

The japanese focus on ingroup bias may also tie to the fact that the games tend to not fill out the details of the world, focusing more on the narrative of the main characters. The angels and demons are relegated to the status of "other," and so little attention is paid to their own worlds or their own interests outside of how they influence the main character's world and setting. Same with their religions, and other aspects of the backstory. Though this also ties to the particular games' focus on being more minimalistic.

## Japanese religion

While there are other pages that describe aspects of japanese religion such as shinto and buddhism, the specific way they relate can use some mention too. For instance, one reason that shinto is depicted as neutral is because since it is a loose sense of traditions, it tends to have no overt dogmatic ethical teachings, and so as time moved on in modern day is not really pushing for any kind of ethical dynamic. Leading up to world war II shinto was declared a form of japanese culture rather than a religion, and so by extension was not supposed to ideologically preach. And so in this pre world war II time, shinto was fairly silent, while zen buddhism was being radicalized to help the war effort.

To understand chaos' religious dynamic of course also requires understanding buddhism as it led into world war II, known as imperial way buddhism. While it has its own section in the buddhism page, some of the basics involve that zen was used to help this radicalization because the doctrine of karma helped uphold the idea of social darwinism, as well as other things such as considering the emperor a divine figure who should be central to one's religious practice.

But to focus more on neutral, neutral of course has elements both of humanism, as well as shinto, which also manifests as a focus on japanese identity. Which is due to shinto being a uniquely japanese religion that for the most part is confined to the nation of japan. After world war II it was not just zen, but also shinto that was heavily dropped off as a religion that was taken seriously, due to it likewise considering the emperor a divine figure. As such, this overlap of shinto aesthetics but them being tied to japanese identity as well as humanism is of course already the religious identity of modern japan. Neutral of course also has buddhist and taoist elements as well, being a melding of the overall dynamic. Because atlus chose neutral as its preferred ending, and depicted it as heavily tied to japan as it exists now, and continuing that trend.