{"id":2446,"date":"2026-05-06T05:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/?p=2446"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:24:38","slug":"%e3%82%a4%e3%83%b3%e3%83%bb%e3%82%b6%e3%83%bb%e3%83%a1%e3%82%ac%e3%83%81%e3%83%a3%e3%83%bc%e3%83%81-and-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/06\/%e3%82%a4%e3%83%b3%e3%83%bb%e3%82%b6%e3%83%bb%e3%83%a1%e3%82%ac%e3%83%81%e3%83%a3%e3%83%bc%e3%83%81-and-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"\u30a4\u30f3\u30fb\u30b6\u30fb\u30e1\u30ac\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u30c1 and Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u300c\u30a4\u30f3\u30fb\u30b6\u30fb\u30e1\u30ac\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u30c1\u300d“In the Mega Church” (In the Mega-church)<\/strong> is the latest novel by Ryo Asai, which recently won the 2026 Japan Booksellers’ Award. Rather than a full review, I want to address three specific mentions of Israel within the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was quite surprised by the first mention, where a character notes that her university friends, Jessica and Nana, are boycotting certain companies to prevent money from going to Israel. There is no explanation, no background, and no further detail provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two other similar mentions in the book. It feels like a clear depiction of peer pressure; the character doesn\u2019t seem to think deeply about the cause itself, but rather acts out of a desire to avoid criticism from her friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reflecting on this, I realized how it connects to the book\u2019s central theme: the culture of “Fandom” in Japan. This culture of “Oshikatsu”\u2014dedicating immense time, money, and effort to an idol\u2014can often mirror a religion or a “mega-church.” This is the bridge. It is a new, religion-like behavior where people follow a set of rules without requiring a deep explanation. The same logic applies to the mentions of Israel: many people follow TikTok trends or social cues blindly, without questioning the “why” behind their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asai\u2019s world, it seems activism has become just another form of fandom\u2014a way to belong to the ‘church’ of the moment. It makes me wonder: are we supporting causes because we believe in them, or because we are afraid of being the only ones left outside the cathedral?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cure’s song “Jumping someone else’s train” keeps playing in my head when thinking about this. Released in 1979, it captures similar idea of following fads and trying to conform:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It’s the latest wave that you’ve been craving for <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old ideal was getting such a bore<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you’re back in line <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going not quite as far but in half the time <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone’s happy, they’re finally all the same <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Cause everyone’s jumping everybody else’s train<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u300c\u30a4\u30f3\u30fb\u30b6\u30fb\u30e1\u30ac\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u30c1\u300d“In the Mega Church” (In the Mega-church) is the latest novel by Ryo Asai, which recently won the 2026 Japan Booksellers’ Award. Rather than a full review, I want to address three specific mentions of Israel within the book. I was quite surprised by the first mention, where a character notes that her university friends, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “\u30a4\u30f3\u30fb\u30b6\u30fb\u30e1\u30ac\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u30c1 and Israel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isreal","category-japan","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2447,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions\/2447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telyas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}