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Beyond Harmony: What Japanese Scandals Reveal About Us All with Dr. Igor Prusa
What do public apologies, tearful press conferences, and ritual humiliation reveal about a society? Dr. Igor Prusa takes us deep into the fascinating world of Japanese scandal culture, challenging conventional wisdom about Japan as a purely harmonious society.
Drawing on his unique background as both a media scholar and Japanese studies expert with two PhDs, Dr. Igor Prusa reveals how Japan's weekly scandals function as elaborate social rituals with distinct phases: transgression, public confession, punishment through social exile, and eventual reintegration. These performances—featuring deep bowing, tears, and formal apologies—serve as a form of scapegoating that temporarily satisfies society's need for justice while protecting corrupt systems.
The conversation ventures far beyond Japan, exploring how ancient scapegoating traditions manifest in modern media spectacles worldwide. Dr. Rusak connects Japanese scandal rituals to philosopher René Girard's theories on imitative desire and conflict resolution, showing how identifying individual transgressors allows communities to maintain cohesion without addressing structural problems. This pattern emerges across cultures but takes distinct forms, from aggressive Japanese press conferences to Western social media pile-ons.
Most provocatively,Dr. Igor Prusa suggests that scandal culture is evolving globally. While Japan maintains its traditional rituals, figures like Donald Trump have disrupted Western scandal narratives by refusing expected contrition, instead transforming potential disgrace into demonstrations of strength. This shift raises profound questions about how societies process moral transgressions in our contemporary media environment.
For anyone interested in cultural differences, media studies, or the social psychology of public shaming, this conversation offers illuminating insights into how scandal reveals society's deepest values, power structures, and conflict resolution mechanisms. Dr. Igor Prusa’s book "Scandal in Japan: Transgression, Performance and Ritual" (Routledge, 2024) provides further case studies examining this phenomenon through celebrity, political, and corporate scandals.
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Hello and welcome to the Business of Life. My name is Dr Ariel King and today we have a very special guest, dr Igor Rusak. Welcome, how are you?
Dr Igor Prusa:I'm fine, Ariel. Thank you very much, and thank you for having me.
Dr Ariel King:It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure, so could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and after, a little bit about your subject.
Dr Igor Prusa:Okay, I come from the Czech Republic and I am a media scholar, japanese scholar and a musician. So first of all, I studied about the media and since I am a Japanese scholar, of course I looked at the Japanese media. So my first PhD was on Japanese media and I did the PhD in Prague, charles University, prague, and I was crazy enough to decide to move on to the second PhD. I would never recommend anyone to do that, don't follow me. The second PhD was at the University of Tokyo and there I have already narrowed down my research into one specific topic, and that topic is scandal. What is a scandal? Media scandal. And, of course, since I was in Japan I lived in Japan for 10 years I was looking at the Japanese scandals. So I started with Japan, then I moved to Japanese media and then I ended with Japanese scandals and this is the topic I was studying at the Tokyo University, where I got my second PhD, crazily enough, and then I released my research as a book. So there is a book out. Last year, rutledge published a book called Scandal in Japan Transgression, performance and Ritual, and, as you can hear, I'm talking about the ritual. So this is my contribution, theoretical contribution.
Dr Igor Prusa:I look at Japan, at scandal as a form of social ritual. Something goes wrong, people are panicking, people are morally indignated and then some elites have to pay the price. Somebody has to step forward. Bow In Japan, the bowing is important, tears are important. Press conferences are full of tears and bows in Japan, and this is the ritual in order to sort of save the situation and show that the system has worked. There was one rotten apple, one person who was bad. We have eliminated them and the system is all right. So scandals in Japan is basically a form of false transcendence that wants to stabilize the society. But the society is never stabilized fully because, as you know, sooner or later it's a temporary thing. Sooner or later there's a new scandal, new corruption and the whole social ritual starts from scratch again in Japan. So I'm looking at this phenomenon of Japanese rituals and I'm trying to understand. Why is it so crazy? Why are there hundreds of reporters screaming at the transgressors? The Japanese company leaders are apologizing, the journalists are screaming at them vulgarly. Sometimes it's a very aggressive ritual. It's somehow. It's the shaming process. You are shaming the transgressor into a better person and the media are there. So the whole nation is watching somebody apologizing, bowing and crying. So for many people this is a sadomasochistic ritual. It seems like it must feel good. You know the schadenfreude where you're happy when the others suffer. So this is something that is located in the scandal as well.
Dr Igor Prusa:So this would be my first topic in my life, as I would say the scandals. And then the second topic, which is kind of secondary, is about popular culture and the role of heroes and anti-heroes in popular culture. I'm looking at the anti-hero. I'm fascinated by those characters in movies, in series, tv series, who are actually morally problematic, morally ambiguous. They do something bad, but still the audiences love them anyway. And this is something which started already in the ancient Greece this kind of tradition between hero and villain, neither hero nor villain, something in between.
Dr Igor Prusa:And I applied this anti-hero concept on various things, including Donald Trump. I argued that Donald Trump is a sort of anti-hero, not really the hero as we know it, but Not really the hero as we know it, but not really the villain as we know it, something in between. And this in-betweenness is so fascinating for the people that of course they come and vote him and eventually he becomes the most powerful man on the planet. And one of those answers. Why would be? He's an anti-hero, he's a morally ambiguous character who is loved and despised by others. Despite all those moral weaknesses, despite all those scandals, as you know, donald Trump can have a scandal and nobody cares. On the contrary, people are clapping hands because, wow, he didn't say I'm sorry, he said so what? I don't care, I'm strong. And people started clapping Wow, he's so strong, he doesn't care about scandals. So, basically, donald Trump killed scandals in the States. There's no scandal anymore because corruption is cool. Basically and this is something which I cannot see in Japan the Japanese context is a little different.
Dr Igor Prusa:There, people are still sort of traditional. They still want to do the ritual of confession. You have to confess to the people, then exclusion you have to be excluded from the limelight as a form of punishment, and then finally, there is reintegration. After some time, the transgressor returns, makes a comeback. A celebrity, a politician, a corporate head these people don't disappear. They only have to be excluded for a certain period of time and then they are returned to the system. So this is also why in Japan, the corruption is so persuasive, because if somebody gets caught, then he or she does the ritual bowing tears, apologies and then makes a comeback and the system doesn't change. The system is the same, the punishment goes on to the individual, but the system is still problematic and this is precisely why scandals keep on going.
Dr Igor Prusa:I am counting scandals in Japan and there is one scandal per week. Every week there is one scandal and it creates this moral indignation. The Japanese people are angry I know they are polite and everything, but they are shocked when they see that their elites are that corrupted that they are. Really they don't care about general morality. It's an insult. Basically, if an elite is corrupted, it's an insult for the normal average people who are doing everyday hard work and they try to keep their noses clean and be a goody-goody. But those who we should follow are not always the best examples and that's something a little depressing. But still, I argue that if you focus on this kind of consensus, harmony, there is no conflict.
Dr Igor Prusa:You get these data, but then in reality, when you look at the Japanese media, you realize it's full of conflict. It's a walking scandal. All the time there is some corruption, some collusion, some gossip, some scoop, some conflict, some scandal. It's craziness really.
Dr Igor Prusa:But you know it's kind of hard for the people to resist because scandals have a double appeal to vice and virtue, because the more we are disgusted by some scandal, the more we are attracted to it. So we are both disgusted and attracted by the scandal, which is why in Japan, when there is a scandal, almost one half of the viewing populace is glued to the screen observing how those little female cuties are crying and bowing and apologizing for taking drugs or having a boyfriend, which you cannot have if you're a celebrity, really. So this is something I, this is the way I learn about Japan myself, not through consensus and harmony, but through conflict and disharmony, and I look at how the relatively consensual and harmonious Japanese society reacts when there is a conflict, and, as you know, no society can avoid social conflict. So Japan is not that harmonious and consensual as we like to, as we read in the textbooks. Actually, the conflict is somehow managed and manifested through scandal, and this manifestation of conflict gives you a great deal of information about Japan itself.
Dr Ariel King:That's so interesting. So what I'm also learning is that it seems like you can know more about the culture. I've been to Japan only through school, as a university student, and I've been there as a tourist when I became older. And this idea of conformity and I still have a Japanese friend that I've had for, I think, maybe 25 years plus. We still talk. He's in Tokyo. So this idea of conformity and this idea that that, yes, um, that people are very polite and they don't do things that are not correct. So what's really interesting to me is that you're saying to me that, well, the way that it comes out is through scandal, yes, and even if it's the system that's scandalous, and there's always an individual that takes the blame, or, if not the blame, there's always an individual that says that they're sorry, but the system stays the same. So tell me more about that. That's so interesting. And you said there's a scandal every week. Which scandals are the most interesting for you?
Dr Igor Prusa:Okay, first of all, this individual versus the system. The thing you were greatly now describing is, in other words, called scapegoating. It's a scapegoating process. So this comes from those old traditions, prehistoric traditions. In the West as well as in Japan. Scapegoating is a social ritual that was there forever, always from the very beginning. So I argue that actually this gets reflected on the way scandals are performed in Japan, because really the Japanese seem to be not willing to admit that the whole system seems to be perverted and they pick this one person, they scapegoat the person in order to be able to say look, the system did something, we reacted to the scandal. But, as you rightly said, instead of looking at the structure, the system, the systemic corruption or the structural corruption system, the systemic corruption or the structural corruption, it is much easier to pick one single individual, somebody who is or is not innocent. A scapegoat can be innocent, it doesn't make any difference. You just have to take someone and punish him in front of the nation, so that the moral indignation decreases a bit, so that people don't go into the streets and make civil war or something. You just want the people to keep silent and happy with what they have. So you show the people the transgressor oh, this is the bad guy. Now the bad guy is bowing, apologizing, crying. Very often the transgressors are crying Female personalities, all of them are crying like little children, you know. And this is the scapegoating process. And this is exactly the case of Japanese scandals and other scandals as well the scapegoating.
Dr Igor Prusa:One interesting thing you may be interested in why people scapegoat others. Well, you may want to. Maybe you know the philosopher René Girard, and René Girard was a famous French philosopher who explained the scapegoating process and he said that in the beginning of the problem. There are two people. One person has a desire. There are two people One person has a desire and the other person imitates that desire. So we don't only imitate each other in the streets out there, but we also imitate our own desires. So if person A wants this car, I feel like I want to have that car as well. If person A has this beautiful girl, wants this beautiful girl, I feel like I want the beautiful girl as well. These are simplified examples, but the point is that there are two people and only one object of desire. So the people, if they both go after the same object of desire, they clash. There is a conflict, clash. There is a conflict and the conflict of two people becomes bigger because somebody goes to the side of the first person, somebody goes to the side to the other person. So we have a conflict and the conflict is growing and this is dangerous for the society. You can fall into chaos and lawlessness. So that's the moment where somebody decides OK, let's select a scapegoat. We need one person who takes all the blame and he or she takes it to his grave.
Dr Igor Prusa:Even In prehistoric times, the scapegoating was basically killing a person. It started with killing animals as sacrifices, but then even people were sacrificed, killed, you know. So, of course, in Japanese scandal, the transgressor is not killed, but the transgressor is humiliated, shamed, punished in front of the whole nation. And then the transgressor is scapegoated, kicked out of the system, out of his position, and he has to stay hidden somewhere for months time as if he would not exist. And then, after a couple of months time usually it's half year the transgressor is returning to the system. He or she apologizes again and is reintegrated back to the system. So the scapegoat is not the traditional scapegoat which gets killed in the beginning. Scapegoat is not the traditional scapegoat which gets killed in the beginning, but it is more like a pragmatic scapegoating.
Dr Igor Prusa:We need to show the people that this is the bad person and this bad person is the bad person, not the system. The system is fine, don't talk about the system. Punish this guy. Here you have the transgressor. You can do whatever you want with him. Transgressor, you can do whatever you want with him. This is like in the Middle Ages, when there were these beheadings in public spaces. There also, the king had to put forward one transgressor and everybody's screaming, hundreds of people are screaming at him and he becomes decapitated, beheaded, punished, right. So today we are a little bit more civilized, so we are not. So today we are a little bit more civilized, so we are not beheading the transgressors, but we are doing this ritual we push them, we humiliate them in public, we kick them out and we let them in.
Dr Igor Prusa:So the system is not changing and the scapegoating process is always the case. So, for example, there is this huge scandal in Japan now of one television station, and the television station was not really guilty, but they had to step forward and they had to scapegoat two people, one chairman and one president, and the chairman and the president had nothing to do with the transgression, but people want to see blood. But usually this is not enough and people are critical anyway. But the scapegoating process is the basic idea of how societies are organized, how societies avoid chaos, lawlessness, because if you let the conflict grow, if you don't scapegoat one person, it becomes a war of all against all. Homo homini lupus, as thomas hobbes would say, man to man will turn wolf to wolf and in order to avoid it, people choose scapegoats, somebody who is very often innocent. That's very sad, but still he or she serves as a lightning rod, as you know, somebody who takes the blame.
Dr Igor Prusa:And, by the way, the very first scapegoat was basically Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and that's the paradox of Jesus Christ, not Christianity. I'm talking about the historical Jesus Christ. The historical Jesus Christ came and he said let's stop the scapegoating process, let's not scapegoat individuals. That's bad and in the end he himself was scapegoated, ended up on the cross, and that's how people did not learn from the message and that's why we have constant conflict, constant scandals and constant scapegoats.
Dr Igor Prusa:One may say that it's because we haven't listened to Jesus 2,000 years ago, because now we have the constant conflict and with the new geopolitical situation today, we are basically re-entering the era of conflicts again.
Dr Igor Prusa:You know, now the might is right, the power is again the point, not harmony and consensus, which we decided after the Second World War, because we realized, oh, this is really not a good idea. And after 70 or so years, of course we sort of forgot about the message and once again we will be trying to be powerful and mighty as separate nations. So the message of Jesus is totally lost. And one more thing Jesus said that if we do not, if we follow the way of life we live so far, then basically we are heading toward the apocalypse. Jesus René Girard would even say that we already live in apocalyptic times, ever since the 1945, the two, hiroshima, nagasaki, and the possibility is here. So as long as there is a possibility that someone, anyone, can push the button and put an end to this planet, then we live in apocalyptic times indeed, and that's quite scary, to be honest no-transcript.
Dr Ariel King:And then what happens in between, when the scapegoat leaves, and is there something expected when they come back?
Dr Igor Prusa:Right? Well, they choose the scapegoat depending on. Sometimes the scapegoat really did something bad, but he or she was not the only one. So the system picks out of the pool of people who are corrupted. There is only one person who becomes scapegoated, and the Japanese usually choose the scapegoat depending on the position. So if it is a serious scandal of some company, then the scapegoat will likely be the chairman or the president or the board director. But if possible, then the system would like to scapegoat some people of lower ranks, because these are not necessary for the system to run. So the system chooses the people depending on the severity of the scandal, the seriousness of the scandal, and then if the person is somehow connected to corruption or transgression, he or she is labeled as a bad apple and a scapegoat. And the second question was can you remind me of the second?
Dr Ariel King:part Right. The second part of it is so they stay away for a while and they come back. So are they supposed to be doing something specific to come back into the fold, or is it just timing and they come back and do? It in the same position, or how do they come back?
Dr Igor Prusa:It depends on who is the scapegoat. If we talk about celebrities, then the celebrities must demonstrate in the meantime that they underwent a transformation. So, for example, a celebrity, when she is kicked out of the system because of a scandal usually sex and drugs then the celebrity stays in the social exile for, let's say, five months time and she cuts her hair, changes the color of her hair, changes the way of living every day, is not joining any social events. She must be like in a prison. Some transgressors go to the five-star hotel and they close themselves in a five-star hotel and they sort of wait until the moral indignation is over. Or many transgressors, after being scapegoated, they write a book about the scandal, which is quite ridiculous, because you are the bad person, let's say, and you even make money based on you being bad, because you're writing about your experiences, right. So this is yet another transformation. So the scapegoated celebrities must show that they have transformed themselves or that the scandal had transformed themselves. And for example, in the beginning the celebrities are walking in black dress during the press conference, but when they want to make a comeback, they are photographed in white dress, because white color in Japan means innocence, purity. You return to innocence, you return to purity. So you see, there are some symbolic elements that are encoded and decoded, and this is how the leadership, the elites, communicate through symbols with the audiences and trying to keep the audiences not that angry, because you need the people to be happy and obedient rather than revolutionary and attacking you. So, yes, there must be always some transformation, but this is usually the case of the celebrities.
Dr Igor Prusa:If you look at the politicians, the male politicians, they are quite arrogant. They don't really care much and they plan their comeback as soon as possible. As soon as the scandal fades out, they just come back. Maybe the only thing they do is they do a second apology. Upon their return, they once again apologize and they ask for forgiveness and they you know these are cliched, pre-scripted phrases, what they're using, but they have to say a certain set of fixed phrases and then he or she is allowed to work again, maybe not the same position, but maybe lower position than he was before.
Dr Igor Prusa:However, if you look at the political scandals imposed for Japan, the majority of Japanese politicians had a huge scandal and still, most of them returned to politics and became even stronger after they scandal. They became prime ministers. Many of them had a scandal and instead of retreating and being a good boy, they became prime ministers. So the scandal is not a game changer. It's more like an irritation or distraction. So the scandal is losing its meaning, not only in the West with Donald Trump, who changed scandal into success, but even in Japan. If you do something, it doesn't mean that there is some righteousness in the game, that it will be fair play. No, it's a theater, it's a circus and it is, as I argued, a social ritual.
Dr Ariel King:I love it. I think I'm learning so much just from what you're talking about in Japanese Scandal. The more you talk about it, the more I realize I've lived in, I think, 12 countries, that, if not in all 12 countries. I've lived in Africa, asia, and I've had some experience, of course, in Europe. It just seems that perhaps that this, what you're talking about, is a human dynamic, this dynamic of scandal, of ritual and of scapegoating and then the person coming back. So, of course, course, not just the united states of america, which we know what's going on there now, but literally different parts of the world. I think the difference is how it's shown. I don't know if this is possible, who sees it, how they see it and how does the ritual work exactly. But is that right? Is this type of ritual something that's more about humanity, about people, about sociology, rather than one country and different countries do it in different ways?
Dr Igor Prusa:I think the basics are the same in Japanese misogi they call it misogi was actually existing in many cultures, pre-modern cultures, modern cultures. So the purification ritual is not Japan only, but it becomes more pronounced in Japan. It becomes more conspicuous, more visible. So because the Japanese are really traditionalists, so the ritual of scandal looks like a Japanese traditional theater. You know Kabuki and all those traditional theaters.
Dr Ariel King:Yes, I know.
Dr Igor Prusa:Kabuki. So it is basically a theater and the point is the same there is a transgression. Everywhere in the same there is a transgression and everywhere in the world there is a transgression and the system, in order to avoid any crisis, the system has to deal with the transgression. And, of course, it's always a moral narrative of the good against the evil, and that's the story, that's the storyline basically everywhere. Good, the fight of good against evil. That's you can basically Everywhere. Good, the fight of good against evil. That's you can find it in fiction. You can find it everywhere. Our lives are basically narratives about good and evil and we are struggling between good and evil. One day we are closer to good, one day they are closer to evil. So this is how I perceive it.
Dr Igor Prusa:Scandal and ritual everybody is doing it, but of course, there are some cultural differences that become apparent if you look at the case of Japan. But there is nothing specific or culture unique to Japan when it comes to scandals and rituals. It is only that Japan is a ritual, sensitive culture. They really love the common life is heavily ritualized, everything is ritualized, this language is ritualized and so on. So this is something that becomes more apparent and more conspicuous if you look at scandal in Japan, but generally, I would say that scandals are losing their meanings. I may be even inclined to say that scandal is dead in the West, but that would be too radical. And in Japan still, scandal is alive. Although it's the same hypocrisy of the system, it's still. It's well alive and at least the Japanese people give you some nice theatrical performance they bow, they cry.
Dr Igor Prusa:You can learn Japanese from the press conferences. There are constant press conferences. I learned so much Japanese from those press conferences so it's quite useful, even as a learning tool for how to learn Japanese. And as I said in the beginning, I will repeat myself I really do think that so far, people were focusing on Japan as a harmonious, consensual culture. So you look at Ikebana tea ceremony. You know, whatever, everything is beautiful, harmonious, right. But if you really want to go a little deeper in the sociology of a nation, you may want to look at the conflict and mediation of conflict, and how the people, how the society, works when there is a crisis, and we can, of course, learn something for ourselves. That's dealing with social crisis. So how do the societies, with their cultures and with their symbols, how do they deal with social crises such as scandals. So it may be a little bit empowering, empowering even for people who, who wants to do some management of of the system.
Dr Ariel King:So, yes, I really love it. And can I ask, I'd love to read your book. Can you tell our audience once again the name of your book? Where is it available for us to buy it?
Dr Igor Prusa:Gladly.
Dr Ariel King:And I'm looking forward to reading it.
Dr Igor Prusa:The name of the book is Scandal in Japan Transgression, performance and Ritual, and it was released by Rutledge in London last year, in 2024. So it is a relatively fresh approach, although I am not giving you all the information In the book. The center of the book are three case studies of Japanese scandal. Are three case studies of Japanese scandal. The first one is a celebrity drug scandal of one very famous Japanese female celebrity. The second one is a political donation funding scandal. So that's a political scandal. And the last one is a corporate scandal of the Olympus Corporation.
Dr Igor Prusa:There was a huge scandal in Japan in 2011, olympus and Michael Woodford, which was a British businessman who was the CEO at Olympus, and he discovered the corruption and he became the whistleblower. He blew the whistle on his own company because his own company got rid of him. They cut him off, they fired him and all these stories I'm presenting in my book. So you can see the celebrity, political, corporate cases. And then I discuss some very basic information about what is a scandal at all, what is the narrative, what is the frame, what is the media event Scandal as media event and then I offer an advanced theoretical framework where I look at scandal from two perspectives. The first is Japanese scandal as media product. In other words, I look at how the media produce, construct, manufacture scandals, produce, construct, manufacture scandals. And the second perspective is and I have discussed, I discussed this a lot today Japanese scandal as social ritual, and here I'm using more anthropology and sociology, where I'm trying to understand what is the theater about?
Dr Igor Prusa:What is the media circus about? Why is there this sadomasochistic element like people are suffering and others are enjoying the suffering of those who are bowing and crying, and I thought this was. This is in the West, it's famous, but in Japan I was told that the Japanese don't do this. They are too nice, they are too polite. If there is somebody else suffering, they go like no, my God, I'm sorry for you, I'm not sure about this, and I can have a discussion because I think this is a universal quality If somebody gets punished, you feel good because it's not you who's getting punished, at this moment at least. So this also may be something more universal, and I'm also discussing this in my book. So you have the scandal basics, then you have the three case studies and then you have the advanced theoretical framework, and the good news is that I made it within 100 pages. So it's a really tiny, very tiny book and you can buy it everywhere and if you can we buy it online can you buy it?
Dr Igor Prusa:it's on amazon, it's everywhere, thank you, but so what? We're going to do.
Dr Ariel King:We'll put it in your. I apologize, we'll put it in the interview. And, um, our time is up, so would you like to make any last? I mean it's so interesting. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you think our audience would love to hear?
Dr Igor Prusa:We have covered some huge topics, such as the scapegoating, because this is part of the idea of how civilizations are created and religions and cultures, and everything starts from there, because people write stories about the scapegoating which we witness and that's how culture gets created. So this is something we have touched upon and I enjoy that very much, but I can imagine talking much more and going much deeper. I believe we stayed on the surface here to make things clear, but next time, if there is any, next time- there is a next time.
Dr Ariel King:I'm looking forward to our next.
Dr Igor Prusa:We can go much deeper into the rabbit hole.
Dr Ariel King:Okay, I'm looking forward to that. I want to thank you so much for being here, Dr Igor Porosha. It's been an absolute delight. I really appreciate it. And to our audience remember, if I'm not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That was the philosopher Hillel and I say if not,