The Emperor’s New Clothes by Andersen has been one of the most popular fables in Japan. I think the reason why the Japanese people like this fable is that Japan has a lot of naked emperors.

A computer shogi defeated the pro shogi players many times,(cf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_shogi) but some Japanese people still believe that it doesn’t mean computer surpassed humans because Mr. Habu, the most famous pro shogi player, has not yet been defeated by computer. Mr. Habu is the very man who has been wanted to challenge a computer shogi the most but escaped it for at least 5 years. I wrote on this blog that he spread ridiculous rumor to avoid a match with computer (cf: https://perfect-chaos.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2016/10/post-53db.html) and that he is the naked Emperor who insists that his clothes can’t be seen by fools.(cf: https://perfect-chaos.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2016/06/post-03e6.html)

However, this perspective hasn’t spread around Japan at all. Especially, the nationwide newspapers, which are the main sponsors for the pro shogi players, haven’t yet said officially that a computer shogi has surpassed Mr. Habu overwhelmingly. They managed to say that a computer might surpass a top shogi player. (cf: http://www.sankei.com/column/news/161009/clm1610090004-n1.html)

Actually, not only the pro shogi players but also a lot of the well-educated Japanese people haven’t realized that a computer surpassed Mr. Habu about 5 years ago although it can be proven scientifically, and some of them still don’t accept it. It’s unbelievable for a lot of the Japanese people not to realize it after an American computer go defeated a Korean top go player who is stronger than all of the Japanese pro go players. Shogi is more complex than chess and much less complex than go. Therefore, computer defeats humans firstly in chess, secondarily in shogi, and finally in go. Definitely, the things go that way. If you went through Japanese math education, you must understand that simple logic. It’s impossible even for Mr. Habu to win against computer because computer already defeated humans in go. I wrote that many times on this blog, but all of the nationwide newspapers, which must have a lot of Japanese well-educated journalists, haven’t yet referred to that topic. It’s so weird, but pathetically those kinds of peculiarities happen in Japan. The Japanese people sometimes consider a naked emperor well-dressed even though they know the emperor is actually naked.

If you know a well-known Western journalist, could you make him/her write this absurd fact? It’s very embarrassing to say, but the Japanese people suddenly admit a fact after the Western people point to it.