Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945 Book

Is it because he's a Japanese so his writing is a little bit like protecting the Japanese view and sometimes even exaggerating the great of Japanese culture? I think yes. For example, in the geographical variation part, I did not agree in the way people raised outside Tokyo are considered as bilingual. In a basic scale, they are all speaking one language which is Nihongo (Japanese). They only have differences in the word choice, dialect, and accent. Therefore, they cannot be called bilingual. Also, the kind of geographical variations exists in every culture, not only in Japan. His statistics and information are usually (too) outdated. For instance, it is given that people in many parts of Japan did not have the consciousness that they were Nihonjin. Nevertheless, recently, this situation has raised to a new level which even causes discrimination to 'Gaijin'. Not only in daily life but also in law, the rights of gaijin are not fully protected (One funny fact, before the residence card of foreigners in Japan changed its name to 'zairyu card', its previous name literally means 'alien registration card' :v such a 'fantastic' experience to become an alien once you get to Japan). One thing I really don't like about this book is that many of his points are not strong and deep enough to make claims or at least give the core of an issue. For instance, when talking about gender inequality, he didn't really point out the problem of the Japanese society itself causing this situation. At home, how can a child learn the gender equality if he or she sees his or her mom is always busy with the housework when the dad comes home and just sits there waiting for the meal (I don't remember the term exactly but they called this as 'miso soup' issue in Japan). This is a really common type of Japanese family. At school, the education should also change itself to adjust the situation. It should find a way to teach the children that the thinking like 'men should work outside and women should stay home' is already fogy. In that case, the 'new' children will grow up with a different mind. However, I doubt if they really teach that at school. One last thing, I would be happy if somehow, the author just admits that the Japanese culture is actually based on the Chinese one. Still, this reading is suitable for college-level learning about Japanese society.