Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States.

• Author: Liebman, Benjamin L.
• Position: Book review

SECRETS, SEX AND SPECTACLE: THE RULES OF SCANDAL IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES. By Mark D. West. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp. v, 404. $45.

Jose Canseco's use of steroids, the sale of used girls' underwear in Japan, penile mutilation, and the moral failings of both Bill Clinton and former Japanese Prime Minister Sosuke Uno are not topics that often appear side by side, much less in a scholarly work of comparative law. And few law professors have the chance to publish a book whose jacket features a picture of a scantily clad woman. In Secrets, Sex and Spectacle, Mark West (1) does both. He also does much more, unraveling the interplay of social and legal rules that influence the formation of scandal and spectacle in Japan and the United States.

West clearly delights in the retelling of scandal. His readers will as well. Yet his aim is not simply to provide an account of scandal in Japanese (and American) society; it is to explore in a comparative context what makes certain conduct scandalous and how societies differ in the formation and management of scandal. In keeping with these aims, West's study is also a call for greater emphasis on the comparative study of scandal and its interaction with law.

This Review takes up West's challenge, discussing West's book with reference to China. Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle has little, if anything, to do with China. Nevertheless, examination of scandal in China largely supports West's central arguments: institutions and rules, both formal and informal, matter in determining the types of occurrences that become scandal in a given society; and scandal is not simply the product of culture.

China's recent experience with scandal also shows some of the ways scandal can play a positive role in opening up discussion of taboo topics--perhaps even more so in a nondemocratic state than in a liberal democracy. Analysis of selected recent Chinese scandals, however, also suggests the benefit of further refinement of West's analysis. These refinements would allow us to better understand the complex interactions among norms, institutions, and individuals that contribute to the formation of scandal, and perhaps to better understand what makes scandal important. Examining West's book in the context of China also suggests that some of West's more striking findings, in particular those regarding defamation litigation in Japan, are perhaps not as surprising when placed in a broader comparative context.

This Review proceeds in four parts. Part I describes West's account of scandal in Japan and the United States and explores some of the ramifications of his account. Part II examines the formation of scandal in contemporary China. Part III compares scandal in China with West's conclusions about scandal in Japan and the United States. Part IV discusses defamation litigation in China, with a view to adding further comparative insight to West's discussion of Japanese libel suits.

1. SCANDAL IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

   1. The Book

      West's goal in the book is to offer a "new framework for understanding scandal" (p. 3). He does so by providing a "detailed ethnography" of scandal (most often translated as sukyandaru) in Japan, with comparative reference to the United States (p. 9). He defines scandal as "an event in which the public revelation of an alleged private breach of a law or a norm results in significant social disapproval or debate and, usually, reputational damage" (p. 6, emphasis omitted). His aim is to "explore the ways rules bring structure to the who, what, when, where, and why of the sliver of human behavior that 'catches' as scandal in Japan and America" (p. 8). He argues that rules regarding what is considered scandal and how scandals play out in the media help to explain similarities and differences in what becomes scandal in Japan and the United States. Examination of these rules shows a crucial difference between the two countries: "Japan tends to emphasize group-based private rule creation and enforcement" and private ordering, while in the United States there is greater "emphasis on public ordering" (p. 8).

      West also challenges three existing trends in scholarship on Japan and on scandal. First, he objects to those who see scandal as irrevocably linked to culture--"inevitable, beyond our control, or perhaps just plain random" (p. 9). Second, he disagrees with those who view scandal as representing moral decay or simply the seeking of "cheap thrills" (p. 9). And finally he critiques those who resort to "glib and broad generalizations about Japanese 'culture'" (p. 10).

      West describes the key institutional players involved in scandal in Japan: the media, lawyers, prosecutors, and other scandal professionals. We learn of the bifurcation of the Japanese media, between the often conservative, elite publishers and television news programs that often shy away from and cover up scandal, and the non-elite tabloids and "wideshow" television programs that "go for the jugular" and revel in running stories the elites ignore (p. 19). The Internet also exposes scandals that don't make it into the media--sometimes leading to reports in print or on television. Media misconduct is widespread and, in contrast to the United States, institutional, with made-up news and false accusations the norm (p. 34).

      Other players in the formation and management of scandal include prosecutors, although Japanese prosecutors play a smaller role in scandal than do their American counterparts (pp. 35-44). Prosecutors in Japan are "elite bureaucrats" who have little to gain from a high profile prosecution (p. 35). Likewise, lawyers play much smaller roles in Japanese scandals than they do in American scandals, in part because trials are rarely a central feature of Japanese scandals (pp. 52-54).

      West also analyzes the roles of privacy and honor in Japan and the United States. His central argument is that honor is of greater importance in Japan than in the United States; this affects both what becomes a scandal and how scandals evolve: "[I]n Japan, it's honor that matters" (p. 109). The primary manifestation of this difference is in defamation litigation, where both legislation and court decisions make it far easier for plaintiffs to win in Japan than in the United States. If the reported matter is not of public concern, truth is not a defense (p. 77). Other aspects of defamation law likewise are plaintiff-friendly: the defendant has the burden of proof regarding truth, there is no required showing of economic harm to the plaintiff, and defendants are required to show that their reports met a reasonableness standard even when reporting on a matter of public concern (pp. 74-78).

      Japan has a far higher rate of defamation litigation than does the United States. West expresses surprise at this finding, noting that compared to the United States Japan has double the number of defamation cases per capita "despite the fact that America has about fifty times as many lawyers" (p. 85, emphasis omitted). This finding is all the more noteworthy given that damages in Japan are generally low when compared to those in the United States. This shows, West argues, that cases in Japan are "not about money"; they are about honor. In contrast to the United States, celebrities and politicians are frequent plaintiffs in Japan, and thus defamation lawsuits are often an important part of celebrity scandal. In Japan, "everyone wins" in such cases: the tabloid press attracts readers, the public gets the scandals it craves, and the pro-plaintiff legal standards mean that celebrities frequently win their cases (p. 106).

      Another central theme in Japanese scandals is the importance of groups. Collective norms often encourage secrecy and cover-up, and an emphasis on uniformity over diversity means that certain topics are largely off the table, most notably matters concerning minority groups such as the Burakumin (pp. 157-62). Group rules also mean that scandals involving only individuals, such as insider trading, are often not big news--unless they involve sex. Political scandals, meanwhile, are managed to protect the group (the party or faction) rather than the individual. The bottom line, West argues, is that groups play a major role "in determining how scandals in Japan are presented, viewed, and controlled"--regardless of whether the scandal involves group or individual conduct (p. 237).

      Individual scandals most often involve money (p. 172). But sex scandals also occur--and, luckily for West--are common in Japan. Unlike in the United States, individual scandal generally involves persons who are already celebrities. West speculates that this reflects pro-plaintiff defamation rules, and that the media do not want to be sued by "ordinary Joes" (which would make the media look far worse than when they are sued by celebrities) (pp. 226-228). And even in areas such as adultery, scandals are often not about the individual: the scandal often results from the individual's attachment to a group.

      Also in contrast to the United States, sex scandals in Japan are not about honesty; they are about unsettled norms governing sex and gender in Japanese society and in the legal system (p. 284). It is in such areas, West suggests, that scandal perhaps plays its most crucial role: scandal introduces debate over unsettled norms and provides a mechanism to begin a discussion about what type of conduct is and is not acceptable.

      Japanese scandals frequently end with a "ritual of remorse, resignations, and occasionally redemption" (p. 285). There are signs, however, of a lessening in the importance of apology in Japanese scandal. West notes that politicians who commit wrongdoing in Japan frequently resign, but they do not always apologize. And many apologies in Japan come on behalf of the group: "The persons who perform the representative apologies are not necessarily the most remorseful; rather, they are the ones who are in...