At 11:27 PM 7/3/2002 +0000, you wrote:

Here's an excerpt: "I think that there are few races in history whose height and weight, whose physical characteristics have changed as much as Japan's has over the past 30 years." and he'd like the Japanese people to "wake up" to realise this "invasion" which is going on. As an example he claims ridiciliously that the average height of Japanese children has "changed by at least 20 centimers"!!

First let me state that I haven't yet read the article myself. Once I do, I may have some different perspective to base my opinions on other than the scattered quotes above. And second, let me further state that my response is coming after having just spent 2 hours arguing with some local yahoo whose basic premise is that "people of color" who haven't achieved their goals in life "just aren't trying hard enough". Enough to make anyone's blood boil. I can only respond thus: #1 - Remember - this is an interview with someone who does not speak terribly fluent English, so any translations they give must be given some latitude. #2 - We are talking about a culture much different than our own (I'm speaking as an American citizen, for reference). Personally I don't see his statements (taken here without any context given) are anything more than perceived factual data. If he is sincerely stating that he sees a change in the overall physical makeup of his nation's people, I'm not seeing anything racist in his remarks. If he were to have said that this change in his country's physical makeup was the result of some foreign plot to undermine the people of Japan, then perhaps we could assume that he is paranoid/racist/whatever. But to take a few select statements from a magazine article and conclude that he is being racist is ludicrous. Like I said, I haven't read the article yet and maybe this argument stated above has some merit, but to post something this reactionary with only the few quoted lines as reference is really ridiculous. Taken out of context you can make any statement by anyone seem scurrilous. Craig M. Rath H: fripp@attbi.com W: rathc@questarweb.com