Today’s post is not about baseball but about Japanese culture as revealed through a current big sports story in Japan, how the nation’s best basketball player, Rui Hachimura, voiced his concerns about how the national team is run, and how the sport’s domestic authorities have responded.

One sign of an authoritarian mindset is blaming deviations from desired outcomes on “a failure to communicate.” The popular media example of this is the favored expression of Strother Martin’s character, the sadistic prison work farm warden, in the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”

Shut up and dribble

Whenever one hears the expression in Japan, you can bet it is said by one in a privileged position explaining how disagreements are others’ fault. We heard this Nov. 20, when Japan Basketball Association Secretary General Shinji Watanabe responded to criticism by the Los Angeles Lakers’ Hachimura by essentially saying the player was mistaken.

“He’s an important player, and I take this very seriously,” Watanabe told reporters. “There was miscommunication, and this has placed a burden upon him.”