Japan ruling party manga using evolutionary theory to push constitutional change slammed – The Mainichi

One strip from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's "Oshiete! Moyawin" manga series featuring a Charles Darwin-like character arguing for the need to revise Japan's Constitution based in evolutionary theory. (Image from the Liberal Democratic Party website)

TOKYO -- The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s debut of a manga featuring a Charles Darwin-like character tying the push to revise Japan's pacifist Constitution to evolutionary theory is drawing a torrent of accusations that the party understands neither evolution nor the danger of applying the theory to politics.

In the four-panel manga "Oshiete! Moyawin" (Please teach me, Moyawin), a character resembling Charles Darwin but called "Moyawin" states, "This is what the theory of evolution says. ... It is not the strongest who survive, nor the cleverest. The only people who can survive are people who can change." Moyawin adds, "I think that to develop Japan yet more going forward, constitutional revision is needed now."

Three of the strips were tweeted by the LDP's public relations account on the evening of June 19, and also appear as an ongoing series in a new section of the party's website.

However, these passages do not appear anywhere in Darwin's revolutionary work "On the Origin of Species" (1859). Rather, they are drawn from a U.S. economist's own interpretation of "Origin" included in a paper penned in the 1960s, and widely considered an "abuse" of Darwin's ideas.

The manga triggered a quick pushback on Twitter, with users posting comments including, "This is an incorrect usage based on a failure to understand the theory of evolution," and "It's twisted to use this for politics." One tweet pointed out that "Darwin never said any of this" and demanded the LDP retract the strips, while another said that "connecting (evolution) to the Constitution, which is completely unrelated, is nothing but a distortion." Yet another user quipped, "Maybe it's the LDP that needs to change."

Psychiatrist and Mainichi Shimbun columnist Rika Kayama also voiced her opposition. In the 19th and 20th centuries, evolutionary theory was applied to human societies in what came to be known as "social Darwinism," and natural selection based on "survival of the fittest" was used to justify racism and eugenics. Kayama tweeted, "The Nazis based their massacre of Jews and disabled people on eugenics, and ever since then, everyone has understood that the simplistic application (of evolutionary theory) to politics is dangerous. I wonder if the LDP PR section did this as a premeditated crime, or just out of ignorance."

Meanwhile, the official account of publisher Iwanami Shoten tweeted, "It's a common misconception about the theory of evolution, but 'evolution' does not equal 'improvement.' Evolution is the source of (biological) diversity."

Satoshi Chiba, a professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Life Sciences who has also penned a book on evolution, told the Mainichi Shimbun, "Evolution is change without direction, and that change is neither for good nor bad. Just as the water of a river slowly created a valley by wearing away the land, (evolution) is change in properties occurring on a group level; the simple result of natural selection and other phenomena. Even regression is a kind of evolution."

"I have to say it is quite shoddy of the PR section of the ruling party to do this with something everyone learns in high school biology," he added.

This is not the first time the LDP has tried to rope Darwin's work into promotion of its political program. In 2001, then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi referred to the theory of evolution in connection with structural reform during his general policy speech to the Diet.

Chiba noted that "while Koizumi said, 'Living things that can respond to change are the ones that survive,' the use this time of the phrase 'people who can change' is more pernicious." He continued, "Adaptation is nothing more than a result. It is not change through intention. To bring biological thinking into politics is itself a serious problem, and quite dangerous."

Hokkaido University professor emeritus and constitutional scholar Katsutoshi Takami told the Mainichi Shimbun, "If we're going to talk about adaptation, then the Constitution has responded to and survived 73 years of change, in the form of new laws, judicial precedent and government reinterpretations, since its implementation. For some to say that 'it must be changed' because they desire to change it seems to me a logical sidestep. If they're going to say that it (the Constitution) cannot adapt to present-day society, then they must clearly present their reasons."

(Japanese original by Fusayo Nomura, Integrated Digital News Center)

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Japan ruling party manga using evolutionary theory to push constitutional change slammed - The Mainichi