Is Japan Politically Correct?

Of course not, says Jean-Marie Bouissou in Les Leçons du Japon (2019). The spectacular arrest of Carlos Ghosn, (former) CEO of Renault-Nissan chipped the glaze of official Tokyo—politesse, cherry blossom and this year’s Olympics—partly because Tokyo criminal prosecutors enjoy an eye-watering 99 per cent conviction rate, and perhaps partly because the last prosecutor to have such a good run in France was Robespierre. In Brazil, by contrast, Ghosn’s country of origin, conviction rates in the Lava Jato corruption cases are less than 1 per cent.¹ Anglo-Saxons who prefer the golden mean hang little thieves and set the big ones free. Some things true in French are not so in ruder tongues. Are the French lessons true in English?

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First, every language has its comparative advantage, so the language you want to use depends on what you want to do. English is excellent for practical life, good for swearing, inapt for philosophy; German is excellent for both philosophy and…