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As I tried to explain in my last post about immigration in England, greater social diversity creates a need for greater sensitivity in people’s use of language. I think it is true to say that the trend towards discouraging language that is offensive to minority groups in society started with the feminist movement. The feminist movement, while primarily focussed on women’s rights, also created a pattern of protest for other groups experiencing discrimination or prejudice - for example, immigrants or gays and lesbians. Language that such groups considered offensive gradually became taboo amongst educated people - a lot of credit for the improved status of women in English society must go to the universities.

Gradually, this new attitude - that it is no longer acceptable to cause offense to minority groups - spread through the media and became generally accepted. This is, however you look at it, a Good Thing, though with time people began to react against this trend. Such people, perhaps lacking the imagination to understand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of discriminatory attitudes, felt that matters had gone too far. That is, that the desire to avoid giving offense, while in itself not undesirable, had become a new and rigid orthodoxy that prevented people from expressing their true opinions.

Also, a broader group of people became highly sceptical when politicians started highlighting the plight of minority groups. English people have always had a healthy scepticism about politicians’ utterances - and this scepticism increased significantly when the desire to avoid offense actually started turning into actual policies.

And so, the term ‘political correctness’ was born and came to be used as a jibe, almost an insult, to refer to the expression of liberal, educated opinions. To be accused of political correctness is like being accused of just being polite, rather than friendly. It is almost as if people cannot accept that someone would actually care that much about causing offense to minority groups in society, and so when they express such opinions they must be just ‘going through the motions’, not really sincere.

The backlash has reached the point where some people take pride in being ‘politically incorrect’ - baldly stating opinions that go against the new liberal orthodoxy. Of course, there is some reason in both camps, since there are those on either side who do not hold carefully-thought-through opinions of their own, but just pick things up from the media, or their friends and acquaintances, or whatever. Politicians are accused of trying to be politically-correct as they seek to broaden their support base to encompass numerically-significant minority groups in society. It is a charge of insincerity and, while an occupational hazard for politicians, is used to talk about anyone of liberal opinion to reinforce self-identity - ‘They’re so PC’ = ‘They don’t really think like us.’ = ‘You have to be careful what you say in front of them.’

Well, perhaps one day we will learn that it is important to be careful what you say. Of course, the Japanese have always known about this and the idea that one should have a public face (probably a P.C. one) and a private face (when you can say what you like) is well established. The extreme reaction to Mr.Yanagisawa’s recent politically-incorrect comments about women and couples with less than two children suggests that social attitudes to women and marriage are changing in Japan. The way in which the bashing has continued despite his numerous attempts to apologize reflects the media’s awareness of a new sense of political correctness with which they wish to identify. No doubt many of the thick-skinned older generation are puzzled by the vehemence of the public reaction and may feel, somewhat politically-incorrectly, that it is all much ado about nothing.

And, of course, in a way, it is. But we are living in an age where sensitivity to language is of paramount importance to the maintenance of harmony in society. Whatever its disadvantages, political correctness puts pressure on people to think about the effect their language will have on others, and to take responsibility for the consequences.