The Time for Revenge Has Come: Dr. T. Tsunoda’s Theory on Japanese Language Brain

Yesterday, I ‘ve got a parcel with a book and an article. Various authors sometimes kindly send me their own books to ask me to publish book reviews online. As usual, I slightly checked who’s written the book and was extremely delighted to find out who the author is: Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA, one of Japanese once esteemed but almost publicly forgotten brain scientist I admire. His son, Dr. Koichi TSUNODA, who is also doctor, sent me the parcel, while he attached his article entitled “Near-infrared-spectroscopic study on processing of sounds in the brain; a comparison between native and non-native speakers of Japanese”. This article per se also astonished me extremely.

Why? Because Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA’s theory on Japanese language brain, or “日本語脳”in Japanese, which was once well known in both Japan and the western world, but harshly criticized aftermath and is almost forgotten these days, is scientifically proved in the above shown article accepted by a peer-reviewed scientific journal in English. Two years ago, I happened to get to know the theory and tried to meet Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA face to face. He kindly welcomed me at his home in Chiba Prefecture and explained me his theory thoroughly by given me an opportunity to experience his method in laboratory.

The theory’s key message is quite simple: The brain of Japanese people is unique because of Japanese language. Only when you grow up in circumstances until about the age of 14 where Japanese language is exclusively used, you can acquire this uniqueness. This uniqueness consists of the following two points: While left cerebral hemisphere understands almost every sound including languages, right cerebral hemisphere catches nearly nothing. According to Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA’s conclusion, this is exactly why the ordinary Japanese tend to mix up reasoning and feeling and can’t argue objectively. In addition, this uniqueness leads only Japanese people with Japanese language skill to develop Japanese culture and society, where harmonization per se is prioritized.

Even though this theory had been supported by a series of prominent scholars in Japan, as Hideki YUKAWA, Nobel laureate, till 1980s, Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA was harshly blamed for “complete fabrication” of this theory by populistic journalists in Japanese media after 1990s. One by one, his supporters dropped out and only his children, who successfully became otorhinolaryngologists were left. Particularly his son, Dr. Koichi TSUNODA sought opportunities to prove his father’s theory with modernized methodologies and to publish an article in an esteemed, peer-reviewed scientific journals in the western world. Finally, their vindictiveness for reaching truth has won.

To be honest, I begin to feel these days that this could happen in the very near future, because one of my masters living in HOKKAIDO told me the following story he heard from his own master “T”: Mr. “T”, who is the second order of seats after president, was recently invited to a luncheon meeting hosted by the president of M. I. T., which takes place quarterly. To the luncheon, not only prominent scholars of the institute but also world-class legend in economy such as Bill Gates are always invited. The topic they discussed at that time was astonishing for Mr. “T”, who had been very active in KEIDANREN, federation of Japanese big corporates till 1980s.

According to Mr. “T”, who was the only invitee from Japan, the participants enthusiastically discussed how to treat the 100 best and brightest young people in the States. All of them were born in 2000 and checked with their I.Q. and grew up in an environment where English is NOT spoken. Instead of that, they have been allowed to communicate only in an artificial language which is totally different from any other languages including English. The young people are now 16 years old and about to show up in the public. How to show them up was the key issue they discussed during the luncheon.

Well, can you see what I mean by saying that? The U. S. establishment already decided to abandon “English” and move to another, artificial language. Whenever you’ll want to be informed what the Best and Brightest in the States are thinking, you’ll have to understand this artificial language which is still unknown in the global community.

However, there must be a loophole for us to approach to this brand new language. There is already one specific language which is extremely isolated from any other languages: The Japanese language. Based on this simple fact, I suppose the best and brightest linguists in M. I. T. must have invented the above mentioned artificial language by duplicating Japanese partly. Because this has been one of the most important strategies USG has pursued, Dr. Tadanobu TSUNODA’s theory had to be almost forbidden in global academia, I suspect. The theory is troublesome for the US establishment, because it simply makes the people on the street become aware of the uniqueness of the Japanese language.

But the decisive sea change has come. The scientifically accepted article written by Dr. Koichi TSUNODA clearly shows the US leadership slowly begins to move to the next phase, which de facto implies “Pax Japonica”. Stay tuned.