My friend Joseph over at "Tame Goes Wild" has been studying Japanese at university for the past several years. It's a staggering amount of work becoming fluent in Japanese and I really respect how hard he both tries to accomplish his goals and become a better person. He often uses his Japanese speech and presentation opportunities to discuss important social issues. He's a gentle, kind soul and I hope you'll all make his Daily Mumble a regular read. He'll inspire you to try to be a better person, too. Sometimes when things in life make me feel down and discouraged, reading about his efforts lift my spirits.
In today's post, Joseph mentioned some interesting facts about organ donation in Japan and I made a huge comment containing some information I was eventually going to get around to posting, but hadn't gotten there yet. Google sent up error messages each time I tried to send the comment (with an attractive hexadecimal code to send along so they'd know what went wrong). I figured I'd try and salvage the (potentially) lost comment and just make the post I was going to make anyway.
A very long time ago, there was a legal drama called "L.A. Law" by David E. Kelly. This is the same man who currently makes the television drama/comedy "Boston Legal" and previously made the (abysmal in my opinion) "Ally McBeal" and (brilliant, again in my opinion) "The Practice". One of the things Kelly does in a lot of his legal shows is use real life cases as fodder for the dramatic situations on his shows. One of the memorable cases on L.A. Law was about a friend of one of the attorney's on the show who needed an organ donation or she would die. She was on a waiting list, but a 50 something Japanese man was being given the next available donation because he had paid a lavish sum of money for the privilege. The attorney argued about the ethics (or lack thereof) of allowing financial capability to determine who gets organs rather than need and how this created a situation where the rich and privileged received disproportionately better care. The way this worked, by the way, was that the donor was bribed to offer their organs to the highest bidder. She lost the case and ended up paying a bribe to another donor in order to keep her friend alive despite her own disapproval of this practice and that of her colleagues.
The reason this little drama was written into the show is that this is exactly what happens when many Japanese people need organ donations. As Joseph's statistics show, a staggeringly low number of Japanese people are willing to donate organs despite the fact that a very high percentage claim to approve of them. It is clear that they approve of them as recipients, not as donors themselves and to this day it's common for Japanese people who need organs to go abroad and pay big money to get them.
If you think I'm wagging a finger or criticizing the Japanese, you'd be wrong. While the imbalance is obvious (they're receiving and not giving), there are cultural reasons for their reluctance to donate organs and, despite cases where people can pay for the organs they get abroad, I'm sure that there are far more cases where people die in need of organs. In the end, they only harm themselves, and it's not really about fault but about belief systems which they have grown up with and a medical system which gives power to the families rather than respecting the wishes of the deceased.
My husband and I have discussed the topic of organ donation many, many times with students as there's a lesson on it in one of the textbooks both of us use (Impact Issues) about the topic. There's a cultural reason for the Japanese not donating organs (likely based in Buddhism according to my students). They do not believe the body should be cut into after death and feel the removal of any parts inhibits their ability to reach heaven. As it was explained to me, they have to cross a river after death and not being intact makes it hard to do so. In fact, I recall a gruesome murder case awhile back where a little girl was murdered and her hands were cut off by the killer and the comment the mother made to the paper was something like 'how can my little girl get to heaven without her hands?'
While Japanese people are not religious, they can be superstitious and also become more spiritually minded as they get older (as do most people). They may not exactly believe in their faiths, but they figure it's better to be safe than sorry, especially about the afterlife. They're not the only ones who feel this way. Some people who are raised as Christians and abandon their faith will still baptize their children "just in case". The fears and ideas you are indoctrinated in can be very strong and it's something all cultures share, not just the Japanese.
The other problem is that organ donation doesn't only come down to what the person who died wanted. If an individual signs up for organ donation and his family decides they don't want him to donate his organs, they can cancel his request, so even open-minded, "fearless" people who go against the grain of their cultural beliefs can be trumped out of making donations after death by a family who is uncomfortable with the idea of organ donation. Given cultural notions about cutting up the body after death, I have to imagine that most families would opt not to allow for donations.
Showing posts with label cultural differences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultural differences. Show all posts
Friday, March 07, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
The Temporary Shuffle
When I first started working full-time at my former company (a Japanese office job that involved textbook making as well as teaching via correspondence), I was informed through indirect channels that the president had a policy with the foreign employees which was essentially "three years and you're out." At the time, I thought this was a plan built around the idea that they'd have to pay us more if we stayed around too long or a frivolous desire for fresh blood. To this day, I can't be sure that that wasn't the case, but something I learned about working in Japan awhile back has made me reconsider my original thinking.
The lion's share of Japanese employees can be roughly divided into two categories. First, there are salaried employees who have all the benefits that one would expect. They get twice yearly bonuses, salary raises each year, the possibility to be promoted, health insurance payments are subsidized by the company, and there is the possibility of a company pension and a housing allowance. Salaried workers are also hard to fire and have better job security. On the down side, they often live the classic life of the overworked in Japan and work overtime, particularly if they are male. These days, overtime is often paid though most employees generally don't claim all the hours they work and are in fact told not to claim more than a certain amount of overtime hours no matter how much they work.
The other class of workers are "temporary" workers. In the U.S., a temp. usually means a person who is relatively short-term and whose work at a particular location is measured in months. In Japan, it essentially means a contract employee who works according to the terms of a one-year contract which may or may not be renewed at the end of the year. The hope tends to be that the employee will renew though rather than they won't be renewed. Of course, at times, the contract employees don't make it past a probationary period, but the same sometimes happens with salaried workers who don't work out.
In contrast to salaried workers, contract (or "temporary") workers don't get a company pension, their insurance isn't augmented in many cases, and usually don't get bonuses or tend to get smaller or less frequent ones. I've never known one to get subsidized housing or company housing. Generally speaking, a lot of contract employees are female and single or married and working to augment the family income until they decide to have children. That's not to say there are no male contract workers, but just the vast majority are female. The benefits of being a contract employee are that every hour must be paid so there's no unpaid overtime and the hourly wages tend to be a bit higher than salaried workers when you don't factor in bonus payments. Also, the responsibilities of such employees are often spelled out in their contracts so work can't be heaped on them in some cases.
Something I learned within the last year or so about contract employees, of which I was one at my former company, is that there is a law in Japan which says that such employees can only serve three years at their current position and then, by law, must be offered a chance to be a salaried worker. Of course, the companies can simply not renew the contracts of such workers after the third year, but generally, they would prefer to keep experienced workers. You can see why I started to question my conclusions about the "three years and you're out" rule for foreign employees at my former company. It's possible they were trying to adhere to the law in this regard.
I can only speculate as to the motivation behind such a law. If I had to guess, I'd think it has to do with making sure people who are good and well-suited to a job have security and are rewarded for their efforts to apply themselves to a job. While I'm generally cynical about the laws made to protect employees, I can't see how this one necessarily benefits employers since they view contract employees as being cheaper to employ than salaried workers. In fact, one of my students recently told me that she was concerned because her type of work was almost entirely populated by this class of worker and she was afraid that, as a rare salaried employee working as support staff, she'd be forced to take a different job or accept a change in her status which would carry a lower wage and none of the benefits she currently enjoys.
More recently, I've learned that companies are finding loopholes in this law. They are circumventing the nature of it by shuffling contract employees to different sections. Apparently, the law only says that you must be offered a salaried position only if you're staying on for a fourth year in the same position. If this sounds like a bit of a sneaky way of avoiding hiring people on in better positions, I regret to say that it gets even worse. Some companies are not satisfied to shuffle such workers to avoid offering them better jobs in accord with the law. They weasel out of compliance by leaving the employees in the same position doing the same job, but rename the section so it appears as though they have been transferred.
Apparently, there has been a court case recently which directly relates to the attempts on the part of some companies to get around the law and Canon has been on the hot seat for having done this. It's relatively rare though that an employee stands up for his or her rights though so I doubt that any sort of precedent will be set even if Canon should lose. Also, the truth is that a lot of contract workers prefer to stay where they are and refuse salaried positions when they are offered. This is probably because the biggest benefit of being such a worker as compared to a salaried worker is that you can walk away with far less guilt and with no sense of "betrayal" of company loyalty as such loyalty is not expected from them.
The lion's share of Japanese employees can be roughly divided into two categories. First, there are salaried employees who have all the benefits that one would expect. They get twice yearly bonuses, salary raises each year, the possibility to be promoted, health insurance payments are subsidized by the company, and there is the possibility of a company pension and a housing allowance. Salaried workers are also hard to fire and have better job security. On the down side, they often live the classic life of the overworked in Japan and work overtime, particularly if they are male. These days, overtime is often paid though most employees generally don't claim all the hours they work and are in fact told not to claim more than a certain amount of overtime hours no matter how much they work.
The other class of workers are "temporary" workers. In the U.S., a temp. usually means a person who is relatively short-term and whose work at a particular location is measured in months. In Japan, it essentially means a contract employee who works according to the terms of a one-year contract which may or may not be renewed at the end of the year. The hope tends to be that the employee will renew though rather than they won't be renewed. Of course, at times, the contract employees don't make it past a probationary period, but the same sometimes happens with salaried workers who don't work out.
In contrast to salaried workers, contract (or "temporary") workers don't get a company pension, their insurance isn't augmented in many cases, and usually don't get bonuses or tend to get smaller or less frequent ones. I've never known one to get subsidized housing or company housing. Generally speaking, a lot of contract employees are female and single or married and working to augment the family income until they decide to have children. That's not to say there are no male contract workers, but just the vast majority are female. The benefits of being a contract employee are that every hour must be paid so there's no unpaid overtime and the hourly wages tend to be a bit higher than salaried workers when you don't factor in bonus payments. Also, the responsibilities of such employees are often spelled out in their contracts so work can't be heaped on them in some cases.
Something I learned within the last year or so about contract employees, of which I was one at my former company, is that there is a law in Japan which says that such employees can only serve three years at their current position and then, by law, must be offered a chance to be a salaried worker. Of course, the companies can simply not renew the contracts of such workers after the third year, but generally, they would prefer to keep experienced workers. You can see why I started to question my conclusions about the "three years and you're out" rule for foreign employees at my former company. It's possible they were trying to adhere to the law in this regard.
I can only speculate as to the motivation behind such a law. If I had to guess, I'd think it has to do with making sure people who are good and well-suited to a job have security and are rewarded for their efforts to apply themselves to a job. While I'm generally cynical about the laws made to protect employees, I can't see how this one necessarily benefits employers since they view contract employees as being cheaper to employ than salaried workers. In fact, one of my students recently told me that she was concerned because her type of work was almost entirely populated by this class of worker and she was afraid that, as a rare salaried employee working as support staff, she'd be forced to take a different job or accept a change in her status which would carry a lower wage and none of the benefits she currently enjoys.
More recently, I've learned that companies are finding loopholes in this law. They are circumventing the nature of it by shuffling contract employees to different sections. Apparently, the law only says that you must be offered a salaried position only if you're staying on for a fourth year in the same position. If this sounds like a bit of a sneaky way of avoiding hiring people on in better positions, I regret to say that it gets even worse. Some companies are not satisfied to shuffle such workers to avoid offering them better jobs in accord with the law. They weasel out of compliance by leaving the employees in the same position doing the same job, but rename the section so it appears as though they have been transferred.
Apparently, there has been a court case recently which directly relates to the attempts on the part of some companies to get around the law and Canon has been on the hot seat for having done this. It's relatively rare though that an employee stands up for his or her rights though so I doubt that any sort of precedent will be set even if Canon should lose. Also, the truth is that a lot of contract workers prefer to stay where they are and refuse salaried positions when they are offered. This is probably because the biggest benefit of being such a worker as compared to a salaried worker is that you can walk away with far less guilt and with no sense of "betrayal" of company loyalty as such loyalty is not expected from them.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Dating Game
You can get your own octopus dumpling cell phone strap from Strap-ya (image pinched from their web site here).Despite the fact that only 2 of my current crop of 11 students are married, very few of them date. Some of them are a bit mature for dating, but several are certainly young enough and sufficiently attractive to consider playing the field. All of the single women say they want to marry and have children some day except one, so it's not like they're disinterested in finding a future mate.
Dating in Japan is rather difficult if people can't find someone they like in their offices since men typically work long hours and socializing outside your immediate circle is difficult. It's one of the reasons various forms of "arranged" meetings still go on. One of the most common is called a "go kon" where 5 men and 5 women meet and socialize in what can be considered a "group date" of sorts. Usually, there is at least one member of each group who know a member of the group of the opposite sex and they arrange to bring everyone together. Some of my students have gone on these meetings at bars or restaurants, but none have been successful in finding someone they liked. My husband has had a few students who have met their mates via these 10-person "dates", so they can be helpful in expanding your horizons when it comes to finding a mate.
Given how rarely my students date, I don't tend to hear much about that side of Japanese life, but one of my students told me today about an experience she had on a one-to-one date. The situation was somewhat complicated by the fact that she wasn't aware that this was actually going to be a true "date" until she started interacting with the fellow. She thought this was an old high school friend (who now happened to attend the same university as her) meeting up for a chat. I would say this is the sort of wackiness that ensues in a culture where ambiguity is a common part of communication, but I'm not so sure this doesn't happen in other cultures as well.
The date in her estimation, was a serious close encounter with a dork. She told me that he was "not a gentleman". I didn't tell her that the implications of this in Western culture could range from his not holding the door open for her as they entered the restaurant to his attempting to surreptitiously probe the contents of her bra, but rather I asked her what that meant in Japan. She told me that it was traditional on dates for men to pay for the meal (or at least offer to do so), but he said they should go Dutch. Not only did he say each should pay his and her own way, but also he out-drank her by a fair margin and made her foot 50% of the bill. Those who live in Japan know that booze is where the lion's share of the cash is spent in a meal and you can seriously influence a tab's total with copious imbibing.
Beyond his profligate drinking partially on her dime and ungallant assertion that they split the bill for a meal he invited her to partake of with him, she said he assumed a presumptive posture by using a very informal form of Japanese for "you" (omae) when speaking with her which she believed should not be used given their level of intimacy at that time. She told me she felt using it indicated he already considered her his "girl".
He did make one gesture which could have been romantic, but, at least in her estimation, he botched it as well. A little gift was proffered as part of the date, a cell phone strap. When I asked her if she liked it, she screwed up her face like she'd just smelled something bad and said, "no!" The strap apparently had a plastic bit of takoyaki (octopus "dumpling") as the ornament on it. She told me that this gift demonstrated to her that he had no idea what women liked and that she passed the distasteful object on to her mother.
Despite the not uncommon unclear communication between Japanese folks, this fellow overtly "confessed" to her that he desired her as a romantic partner and asked that she not go to America to attend university for a year as planned. Considering he had all of one date under his belt, this was more than a little presumptuous. My student didn't respond to his declaration of "like" for her, but later decided to e-mail him and say just one thing, "I'm sorry." She told me this was all it took to let him know that she was rejecting him and, despite the ambiguity of the message in English, he'd get the message loud and clear in Japanese.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Cross-Cultural Attention Needs
My previous post was a caveat for the answer I'm about to give to this question that I was asked in the comments section of a former post:
"NINPO said...
Hello Shari,
I enjoyed reading your blog. I am a Japanese male living in Japan who had some experiences overseas. I'd like to state that its the social dating expectation that guys react to. When I was in Canada I would usually say the jokes that girls wanted to hear and be gentle and all that. Its because the dating scene expects that from guys.
When Im in Japan, I do not have to worry about pampering girls etc (although, Japanese girls love being pampered) and can relax more. I am not sure if that's because I am Japanese. I find that if I am with a western girl I always would have to give her attention and satisfy her and it kinda tires me. I have an Italian friend who married a Japanese and he says that Italian girls always asks for attention and its too much.
Why are guys in the west expected as a norm to pamper their woman and give her attention all the time? or am I being too general? What do you think. Would love to hear your opinion."
I loved this question because it got me thinking all evening and I want to thank Ninpo both for taking the time to read my blog and writing this comment. It offered a perspective on women I would never have considered and brought up an issue I'd never read about before.
I believe that the differences in the attention women in America (I can't speak for other Western countries) and Japan are the effects of several different broad factors.
1. The type of woman you are pursuing.
There are high maintenance and low maintenance people. One of my husband's former girlfriends in the U.S. didn't require that much attention or interaction. In fact, she sometimes felt overwhelmed by his demands on her attention. They were simply rather mismatched on their attention needs. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with either of them, but just that they were different.
I also believe that the age and attractiveness of the woman being pursued is an issue. Younger women require more attention than older ones. Women who consider themselves very attractive in their culture will feel as though they are due more attention because, frankly, they often get more of it as men compete for their favor. From a cultural viewpoint, I wonder if Japanese aesthetics may play a part in this. That is, I think Japanese people aren't quite as shallow when it comes to imperfections as Western folks and the bar isn't set so high on being considered "acceptably attractive" (good enough to marry or date) in Japan compared to the West where the consumerist culture is constantly encouraging everyone to scrutinize their appearance and find every last little detail lacking so they'll buy products to improve themselves.
I base my assertion about Japan on the fact that not everyone has to have perfect teeth (and I've been told that some people think crooked teeth are "cute") and the general aversion to plastic surgery in Japan. It has always seemed to me that the Japanese were more realistic about what people should look like and that Western standards are getting more and more out of hand to fuel various cosmetics industries.
Attractive women in the West may feel they deserve and can command more attention based on how many standard deviations they are above other women whereas women in Japan may not see themselves as so significantly different from other women on an attractiveness scale. That's not to say there aren't women who are clearly more attractive than others but just that the most beautiful Japanese women may see themselves as two cuts above average whereas the most beautiful Western woman may see herself as 5 ranks higher than average.
2. The communication styles of the country.
Ambiguity is something which is not only a part of Japanese communication, but actually sometimes admirable and desirable. One of the greatest frustrations for Western folks is the tendency among Japanese people not to say what they mean, but rather to be vague and figure we will reach the proper conclusion based on commonly known interpretations for particular types of vague language.
Generally speaking, I believe you can say also that this comfort with ambiguity breeds a tolerance for incomplete understanding and communication. Japanese people may be more comfortable not knowing exactly where they stand in a relationship because they are used to dealing with such "fuzzy" boundaries.
In regards to attention and American women, receiving attention is a constant stream of communication that you are cared about and important. Since Western folks like clear communication and firmly understood boundaries (without them, some people get anxious about the status of a relationship), constant attention, especially early on in a relationship or during the courtship phase, keeps it clear that you maintain a strong interest in the other person. If the attention starts to wane, the communication will be that you are losing interest. I will note that this is a situation that changes with greater security and experience in a relationship though it never goes away.
3. The status and power of women relative to men in the country on the whole.
While the lot of women in Japan has improved a lot, they still are not equal or even seen as as valuable to society as men. If your culture informs you that you have less value, you will sublimate your needs to the needs of the person who is seen as more valuable. You can see women constantly yielding to men on many levels in life in Japan and men asserting their right to come first. From serving tea and coffee to being relegated to support work in companies to women being expected to move aside while walking on a crowded street so the man can walk on through uninterrupted, women's needs often come second to men's. In that sort of culture, women don't even think about asserting their needs. In fact, I think that their primary mindset is not about themselves but about serving others. That is absolutely not a statement that women are subservient. However, I do believe that women are indoctrinated in all cultures (though more so in Japan) to think first of others and last of themselves.
Additionally, people without power, and the unequal situation for men and women in Japan means women have far less power than men, do not go around making demands. Women are still seriously economically disadvantaged if they do not marry and that means men have the power in relationships. The men give the support. The women need it. If you're in the position, you're hardly in a place where you can demand attention as you know your options are limited.
I think American women feel that they have the power to demand what they want because they can make their way economically on their own without serious disadvantage. If they don't get what they want, they'd just as soon be alone or move on to someone who will give them what they want. The more equitable situation (though still not equal) gives them the power to act on their needs and wishes.
4. The expectations and ideas of a relationships and marriage that are common in the culture.
Marriage in Japan is really quite different from that in the U.S. First and foremost, and I know people are going to take issue with me for this, but I can't go against a tide of discussions about this topic with Japanese people, Japanese people view marriage more pragmatically than Americans. They see it as a life partnership for creating a successful family. It is more akin to a "business" linking when you compare it to Western ideals.
That is not to say that there is no love or passion in Japanese marriages. I'm only saying that the primary consideration is the success of the partnership. Every time I discuss this topic with a Japanese person, the idea of a "love" relationship to them is "ideal" but is second to forming a partnership with someone who is capable of fulfilling their necessary role for a successful future family. That is, men have to be capable of being good breadwinners and women have to be capable of supporting the men as needed (by doing whatever suits their mutually-agreed upon goal). For Japanese people, by and large, the future is the focus, not the passion of the moment.
For American folks, the passion of the moment is the focus and the future will fall into place later. They feel that "love will find a way" and often discard notions of obstacles and pursue their feelings in even the most imprudent situations (such as falling in love with married people or people with fatal character flaws and problems). With this focus on passion comes the need for attention. If you aren't paying attention, you aren't passionate and the other person doesn't feel special or that you're really loving them.
Tangentially related to this, I believe that the nature of men's and women's roles in the culture also play a part. American society has very flexible roles. People tend to relate in individualistic and idiosyncratic ways whereas the roles in Japan are more traditional and easy to fit into. A good husband in Japan knows what he must do to be a success in that role as does a good wife in her role. The benefit of this situation is that each party can fulfill the others expectations by fulfilling society's commonly-held expectations. There's no need for husbands or boyfriends to deliver flowers and chocolates or go out for romantic dinners on a regular basis to be a "good husband" as both parties accept that his role is to work hard so his family can live well and be a kind person. In the U.S., each couple defines their relationship as they see fit and that often requires a lot more communication. The American situation is fraught with insecurity because of this lack of solid boundaries for what is "good" or "bad" in a relationship. That insecurity leads to the need for a lot more attention.
In Japan, the other main point I think is that the women's future focus is on their children rather than their husbands. Women here tend to get their emotional satisfaction as mothers more so than as wives. In the U.S., the relationship between the husband and wife is the one that primarily fulfills needs, not the one between parent and child. This is because the family in Japan is seen as an eternal unit with interconnecting responsibilities that will last throughout lifetimes, but in the U.S., kids are expected to become independent after 18 or college. American parents can't rely on an emotional bond with their kids that will sustain them, but they (hope to) rely on their spouses. Generally speaking, husbands and wives or life partners rely on each other more for their happiness in the U.S. and that means they need a lot more interaction and attention.
One final note I'd like to add is that, I don't think it's only women in the U.S. who need more attention. I think men in the U.S. need more attention as well, but men in general are more self-absorbed and tend to be content with non-verbal attention. Men essentially require a different form of attention so they don't recognize it as being any special need, but it is there as well. They recognize it in women mainly because it's not what they need so it strikes them as a hassle to provide. The perception that women require more attention than men is compounded by the fact that women tend to more readily and seamlessly offer men the forms of attention they need without complaint or prodding since they are socialized to be more other-directed. That being said, there is almost certainly a relationship between men's need for certain types of "attention" and complaints about women not wanting to have sex often enough and not "nurturing" them well enough (e.g., cooking, cleaning). The only difference is that men see what they need as being "natural" and what women need as being "unusual."
"NINPO said...
Hello Shari,
I enjoyed reading your blog. I am a Japanese male living in Japan who had some experiences overseas. I'd like to state that its the social dating expectation that guys react to. When I was in Canada I would usually say the jokes that girls wanted to hear and be gentle and all that. Its because the dating scene expects that from guys.
When Im in Japan, I do not have to worry about pampering girls etc (although, Japanese girls love being pampered) and can relax more. I am not sure if that's because I am Japanese. I find that if I am with a western girl I always would have to give her attention and satisfy her and it kinda tires me. I have an Italian friend who married a Japanese and he says that Italian girls always asks for attention and its too much.
Why are guys in the west expected as a norm to pamper their woman and give her attention all the time? or am I being too general? What do you think. Would love to hear your opinion."
I loved this question because it got me thinking all evening and I want to thank Ninpo both for taking the time to read my blog and writing this comment. It offered a perspective on women I would never have considered and brought up an issue I'd never read about before.
I believe that the differences in the attention women in America (I can't speak for other Western countries) and Japan are the effects of several different broad factors.
1. The type of woman you are pursuing.
There are high maintenance and low maintenance people. One of my husband's former girlfriends in the U.S. didn't require that much attention or interaction. In fact, she sometimes felt overwhelmed by his demands on her attention. They were simply rather mismatched on their attention needs. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with either of them, but just that they were different.
I also believe that the age and attractiveness of the woman being pursued is an issue. Younger women require more attention than older ones. Women who consider themselves very attractive in their culture will feel as though they are due more attention because, frankly, they often get more of it as men compete for their favor. From a cultural viewpoint, I wonder if Japanese aesthetics may play a part in this. That is, I think Japanese people aren't quite as shallow when it comes to imperfections as Western folks and the bar isn't set so high on being considered "acceptably attractive" (good enough to marry or date) in Japan compared to the West where the consumerist culture is constantly encouraging everyone to scrutinize their appearance and find every last little detail lacking so they'll buy products to improve themselves.
I base my assertion about Japan on the fact that not everyone has to have perfect teeth (and I've been told that some people think crooked teeth are "cute") and the general aversion to plastic surgery in Japan. It has always seemed to me that the Japanese were more realistic about what people should look like and that Western standards are getting more and more out of hand to fuel various cosmetics industries.
Attractive women in the West may feel they deserve and can command more attention based on how many standard deviations they are above other women whereas women in Japan may not see themselves as so significantly different from other women on an attractiveness scale. That's not to say there aren't women who are clearly more attractive than others but just that the most beautiful Japanese women may see themselves as two cuts above average whereas the most beautiful Western woman may see herself as 5 ranks higher than average.
2. The communication styles of the country.
Ambiguity is something which is not only a part of Japanese communication, but actually sometimes admirable and desirable. One of the greatest frustrations for Western folks is the tendency among Japanese people not to say what they mean, but rather to be vague and figure we will reach the proper conclusion based on commonly known interpretations for particular types of vague language.
Generally speaking, I believe you can say also that this comfort with ambiguity breeds a tolerance for incomplete understanding and communication. Japanese people may be more comfortable not knowing exactly where they stand in a relationship because they are used to dealing with such "fuzzy" boundaries.
In regards to attention and American women, receiving attention is a constant stream of communication that you are cared about and important. Since Western folks like clear communication and firmly understood boundaries (without them, some people get anxious about the status of a relationship), constant attention, especially early on in a relationship or during the courtship phase, keeps it clear that you maintain a strong interest in the other person. If the attention starts to wane, the communication will be that you are losing interest. I will note that this is a situation that changes with greater security and experience in a relationship though it never goes away.
3. The status and power of women relative to men in the country on the whole.
While the lot of women in Japan has improved a lot, they still are not equal or even seen as as valuable to society as men. If your culture informs you that you have less value, you will sublimate your needs to the needs of the person who is seen as more valuable. You can see women constantly yielding to men on many levels in life in Japan and men asserting their right to come first. From serving tea and coffee to being relegated to support work in companies to women being expected to move aside while walking on a crowded street so the man can walk on through uninterrupted, women's needs often come second to men's. In that sort of culture, women don't even think about asserting their needs. In fact, I think that their primary mindset is not about themselves but about serving others. That is absolutely not a statement that women are subservient. However, I do believe that women are indoctrinated in all cultures (though more so in Japan) to think first of others and last of themselves.
Additionally, people without power, and the unequal situation for men and women in Japan means women have far less power than men, do not go around making demands. Women are still seriously economically disadvantaged if they do not marry and that means men have the power in relationships. The men give the support. The women need it. If you're in the position, you're hardly in a place where you can demand attention as you know your options are limited.
I think American women feel that they have the power to demand what they want because they can make their way economically on their own without serious disadvantage. If they don't get what they want, they'd just as soon be alone or move on to someone who will give them what they want. The more equitable situation (though still not equal) gives them the power to act on their needs and wishes.
4. The expectations and ideas of a relationships and marriage that are common in the culture.
Marriage in Japan is really quite different from that in the U.S. First and foremost, and I know people are going to take issue with me for this, but I can't go against a tide of discussions about this topic with Japanese people, Japanese people view marriage more pragmatically than Americans. They see it as a life partnership for creating a successful family. It is more akin to a "business" linking when you compare it to Western ideals.
That is not to say that there is no love or passion in Japanese marriages. I'm only saying that the primary consideration is the success of the partnership. Every time I discuss this topic with a Japanese person, the idea of a "love" relationship to them is "ideal" but is second to forming a partnership with someone who is capable of fulfilling their necessary role for a successful future family. That is, men have to be capable of being good breadwinners and women have to be capable of supporting the men as needed (by doing whatever suits their mutually-agreed upon goal). For Japanese people, by and large, the future is the focus, not the passion of the moment.
For American folks, the passion of the moment is the focus and the future will fall into place later. They feel that "love will find a way" and often discard notions of obstacles and pursue their feelings in even the most imprudent situations (such as falling in love with married people or people with fatal character flaws and problems). With this focus on passion comes the need for attention. If you aren't paying attention, you aren't passionate and the other person doesn't feel special or that you're really loving them.
Tangentially related to this, I believe that the nature of men's and women's roles in the culture also play a part. American society has very flexible roles. People tend to relate in individualistic and idiosyncratic ways whereas the roles in Japan are more traditional and easy to fit into. A good husband in Japan knows what he must do to be a success in that role as does a good wife in her role. The benefit of this situation is that each party can fulfill the others expectations by fulfilling society's commonly-held expectations. There's no need for husbands or boyfriends to deliver flowers and chocolates or go out for romantic dinners on a regular basis to be a "good husband" as both parties accept that his role is to work hard so his family can live well and be a kind person. In the U.S., each couple defines their relationship as they see fit and that often requires a lot more communication. The American situation is fraught with insecurity because of this lack of solid boundaries for what is "good" or "bad" in a relationship. That insecurity leads to the need for a lot more attention.
In Japan, the other main point I think is that the women's future focus is on their children rather than their husbands. Women here tend to get their emotional satisfaction as mothers more so than as wives. In the U.S., the relationship between the husband and wife is the one that primarily fulfills needs, not the one between parent and child. This is because the family in Japan is seen as an eternal unit with interconnecting responsibilities that will last throughout lifetimes, but in the U.S., kids are expected to become independent after 18 or college. American parents can't rely on an emotional bond with their kids that will sustain them, but they (hope to) rely on their spouses. Generally speaking, husbands and wives or life partners rely on each other more for their happiness in the U.S. and that means they need a lot more interaction and attention.
One final note I'd like to add is that, I don't think it's only women in the U.S. who need more attention. I think men in the U.S. need more attention as well, but men in general are more self-absorbed and tend to be content with non-verbal attention. Men essentially require a different form of attention so they don't recognize it as being any special need, but it is there as well. They recognize it in women mainly because it's not what they need so it strikes them as a hassle to provide. The perception that women require more attention than men is compounded by the fact that women tend to more readily and seamlessly offer men the forms of attention they need without complaint or prodding since they are socialized to be more other-directed. That being said, there is almost certainly a relationship between men's need for certain types of "attention" and complaints about women not wanting to have sex often enough and not "nurturing" them well enough (e.g., cooking, cleaning). The only difference is that men see what they need as being "natural" and what women need as being "unusual."
Friday, February 22, 2008
Charisma Men
Image pinched from the Charisma Man home page where one can order a comic book of the strips. Click this version to see a more readable size, or, visit the web site.Back when I first started working in Japan, there was a young Canadian man working at Nova who worked the same morning shifts as I. He was only 20 years old and had come to Japan when he was 19. Somehow, he managed to get a work visa despite only having some junior college under his belt. (For those who don't know, the minimum requirement for a work visa is (usually) a Bachelor's degree.)
On occasion, I interacted with him either when no lessons were scheduled or in the conversation lounge when we were scheduled in there together. Unsurprisingly, he was sometimes pretty immature. Somewhat surprisingly, he was prone to emotional outbursts on the job. The main things I noticed were that he was prone to chatting with young female students in Japanese whenever the least opportunity presented itself, even when he was supposed to be helping them practice English.
As time went by, he developed a crush on a British coworker who I was friends with. He interacted with her like a lovesick puppy until she agreed to go on a trip to Tokyo Disneyland with him a few young Japanese women. Upon returning from this foray, my friend told me that his behavior was extremely childish and overtly attention-seeking and boastful. She said she was both embarrassed to be with him and as a witness to this behavior in front of the Japanese women. She also said that she was told by the Japanese girls that his speaking was very much like that of a Japanese schoolgirl because he'd honed his skills on young girls.
This young man didn't tend to socialize much with the foreign coworkers between classes or at lunch time. He tended to spend most of his time chatting with secretaries or lunching with students. At that time, socializing with students was not prohibited, or, if it was, it wasn't enforced. Eventually, he seemed to develop a superior and contemptuous attitude toward the other foreigners and wanted little to do with them, particularly after my friend was forced to overtly reject his interest in her.
I didn't know it at the time, but I'd just had my first experience with a classic "charisma man" type of foreign male. This is the type of guy who lacks sufficient social skills and emotional maturity in his home culture that he would have a lot of difficulty cultivating a romantic relationship with a woman in his home country, but cross-cultural differences allow him to form relationships in Japan. His "foreignness" explains his awkwardness and lack of grace in a manner which allows Japanese women to forgive him. They can't tell the difference between someone who doesn't conform to their cultural expectations because he doesn't know how to and someone who is an oafish dork. Also, Japanese people value tolerance and "enduring" hardship silently as a part of their culture so the women feel that part of being in a relationship is accepting the rough patches in their mates to a far greater extent than foreign women do. Previously, I talked about how Japanese women also generally have different expectations of a mate and that's part of the situation as well.
Fast forward 12 years and the "charisma man" I worked with at Nova shows up as an employee at the company which bought out my former company. The interesting thing is that his arrogance, disdain for foreigners and tendency to suck up to the Japanese haven't changed. He says he actually hates foreign employees over a decade down the road. I avoided him as much as possible and am relieved that he didn't work in the same office as I, but rather in a branch office.
Among the men who fit the category lampooned in the cartoon above (and please don't misunderstand, I am not asserting that all men who pursue relationships with Japanese women fit this category...they don't, not by a long shot), I've noticed they tend to have certain things in common. Before undies get balled up in large, uncomfortable wads, keep in mind, sensitive male readers, that even if you fit every item on this list, I'm not saying you're one of these losers. After all, I don't know you so I can't possibly be talking about you. I can only talk about the men I've actually met.
- Most of these men came to Japan at a relatively young age and had limited social experience back home. They tend to be here for the vast majority of their young adult socialization and maturation process.
- Most of them met their wives or girlfriends in Japan, not in their home countries. I've noticed a serious difference between men who meet Japanese women in their home countries and marry them then come to Japan as compared to men who meet their wives here initially. The former tend to be a lot nicer group of guys.
- All of them (in my experience) are good at speaking Japanese as it is a high priority to become proficient enough to chat up girls, but also they prefer socializing with Japanese people as they can easily impress them simply by being foreign. They also vigorously throw themselves into practicing as it gives them more interaction with women.
- Few of them have ever had a Western girlfriend.
- Most of them have extremely stereotypical and derogatory opinions about Western women. They tend to view them as lazy, pushy, controlling, demanding, and opinionated.
- Most of them have stereotypical and shallow opinions of Japanese women and emphasize the physical assets of Japanese women in opposition to their stereotypical views of the physicality of Western women. That is, they talk about how naturally (and eternally) slim, beautiful, nurturing (as in willing to do all the cooking and cleaning without complaint), and feminine (quiet, demure) Japanese women are whereas Western women are all going to end up fat and ugly.
- Most of them base their relationship from an emotional viewpoint on trivialities such as Japanese pop culture and light social activities like karaoke, pub crawling, travel, and sports. Few of them value deep or meaningful dialog with their significant other as an important part of a relationship.
- Most are very arrogant and have difficulties when their ideas, opinions or knowledge are challenged. Personally, I believe that is because debate where ones assertions are disagreed with is not common in Japan and since most of these men came here at a young age, they have never developed the ability to handle disagreement well, particularly if women have been a large focus in their socialization here.
- Most of them dislike other foreigners and tend to regard most of them with contempt. In some cases, part of this contempt involves constantly measuring other foreigners' language ability, work type and status and cultural knowledge against theirs and smugly concluding they are better.
In many ways, there's nothing wrong with these guys as they are succeeding in a manner which harms no one and often makes the Japanese women they couple with (seemingly) happy enough. In fact, they have essentially traded in social failure in one country for social success in another. The only problem comes when you're a fellow foreigner and are forced to work or interact with one of these sorts and put up with the attitude. It's a real test of your better nature to be around one of them for any length of time and to not start returning the contempt they exude at you in kind.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Cops
A police car drives past Koenji station and the flash highlights a curiously neon sign on its side.(I'd been meaning for quite some time to write something about the police in Japan but never quite got around to it. However, after reading an entry in Helen's blog, I decided the time was nigh. You may want to pop by and read about her experience as it's a typical one.)
Back in the U.S., the situation with the police is generally well understood due to the plethora of police and lawyer dramas which slowly educate us about the power of the criminal justice system and our rights. In fact, we know that we have quite a lot of rights should the police approach us or charge us with a crime. We know that they have to tell us why they're arresting us and cannot hold us unless they have specific charges to raise against us. We know we don't have to speak to t hem and that we have the right to consult with a lawyer. There are also limits to how long we can be detained depending on the crime and charges.
When I first came to Japan, I assumed the police situation was much the same. I've since learned that it very much is not in a great many ways and most of them are unfavorable. It's hard to actually grasp this though when you first arrive and encounter the police as they seem docile and impotent. They ride around on white bicycles, sit in little police boxes on street corners (koban) and tend mainly to give directions and hassle people about their bicycles. If you stop and ask them about something, they're pretty friendly.
Most interactions with the police involve reporting lost wallets and tracking stolen bikes. When you buy a new bike in Japan, it is automatically registered with the police. When one of my husband's many stolen bikes was recovered by the police, they called us to tell us about it and we were able to retrieve it. Additionally, the police come door-to-door and note the inhabitants of all the domiciles in their area. They do this so they know who belongs and who doesn't as well as to help them know the neighborhood. This is all part of the innocuous side of law enforcement here.
The less innocuous part comes along when you make a mistake. Whether it be not carrying your foreigner identification card or breaking the law in some fashion, you can learn pretty painfully that your rights are very different in Japan. For one thing, you can be held for up to 3 weeks without being told anything about the crime you're being hauled in for. You don't have the right to a lawyer before questioning nor do you have the right to make a call. Your guilt isn't a matter of evidence collection so much as a foregone conclusion once you've been accused. The Japanese police do not rely heavily on forensic proof. They rely on confession and can coerce it from you. Prison in Japan is very regimented with conditions regarding meals, hygiene, and behavior that would seem quite oppressive by U.S. prison standards. They exercise strict control over what you do and how you do it as well as when you can do it.
The main danger of the situation with the police in Japan for foreigners lies in the ambiguity of the laws and rights of the accused. In the U.S., we know our rights and the limits of authorities (though we know them less now that ever before with the Bush administration's "help"). In Japan, there is enough wiggle room in a lot of laws to give the police the latitude to give you a hard time when they feel like it and ignore infractions when they feel like it.
One example is the situation regarding riding bicycles on the streets versus the sidewalks. Laws were changed at some point to get bikes out of the streets as traffic increased and it became too dangerous to have them sharing narrow streets with vehicles. Unfortunately, it was never made clear where cyclists were supposed to ride after they were forced out of the streets because it's technically illegal to ride on the sidewalk. This allows the police to selectively enforce whatever "rule" they want as they can point to whichever law they want if they decide to fine you. It seems that if you do something which the police don't like such as ride too fast or recklessly, they can call you on it, but if you don't do anything they dislike, they leave you alone.
Generally speaking, I think the best way to deal with living in Japan is to cooperate with the police as much as you can even when you don't think they have a right to hassle you. It also doesn't hurt to smile and say "konnichiwa" when you pass by one of them so they know your face and see you as a person. One thing you don't want to do is get into physical altercations with Japanese people because of an avoidable emotional confrontation. I've read quite a few stories where a man gets angry and takes a swing at a Japanese fellow only to end up in jail for 3 weeks powerless and traumatized. At the end of their stays, they are often a million yen or more poorer as they pay off the "victim" for injuries inflicted. In all the cases I've read, the foreign person was essentially held until he admitted he was completely at fault and ponied up a lot of money in compensation. It doesn't matter if you're provoked. It's not going to be worth the pain and cost if you end up getting arrested because no one will listen to your reasons.
You can fight this sort of thing when it happens if you have the time, money, and language skills, but ultimately, it's not going to accomplish anything. The ambiguity of the authority of the police will always end any challenge to their actions with the answer of 'they were within their rights to do (whatever).' There are some folks out there who make it their life's work to fight injustices in this area but I've never known one who actually got anywhere. All they end up doing is getting the runaround until their challenges peter out and they have no choice but to drop the ball and move on to the next fight. That doesn't mean that they can't point at the laws and say they have a case because they often do, but rather that it often doesn't matter in Japan whether you seem to have a case according to a piece of paper somewhere. There's every likelihood that there's probably another piece of paper somewhere else saying that the opposite of your document is also lawful and the police are allowed to act in opposition to your documented "right".
The bottom line is that, just because they seem jovial, friendly, and innocuous, you shouldn't take the police in Japan lightly as they have more power to make your life really hard if they want to than police back home do. They also have far fewer compunctions about doing so if you cross them as their notions of your rights aren't nearly as strong as your notions of your rights. Fortunately, they aren't motivated to take advantage of this power most of the time and will leave you alone if you behave yourself and toe the line when they ask you to.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wedding "Gifts"
Yesterday one of my students attended a lesson with me after attending a funeral. She had a largish shopping bag with her which contained the gift she was given at the funeral (towels) and I took the occasion to quiz her on various aspects of money gifts in regards to the two big non-family occasions where money is frequently given. For the record, the other big money giving occasions is New Year's when kids are given cash as a gift (called "otoshidama"). However, non-family members don't tend to give kids cash at that time.
My relatively simplistic understanding of cash gifts in Japan was rather mixed up with my Western notions of why we give money. In fact, even when I know otherwise, it's difficult to separate the idea that we give money as a gift in the West to offer future security or assets to a person in the future. In Japan, money is given to cover costs of an event to which guests are invited, not as a personal bonus in celebration of an event.
At funerals, my student told me somewhat token amounts of money are given (about 5,000 yen ($46) for coworkers, 10,000 yen ($93) for closer friends or those who are older and have a higher status job) because the guest is not being treated to a lavishly catered experience. At weddings, however, she told me that the standard amount is 30,000 yen ($280) for any guest who isn't too young or underemployed to pay it. When I told her that this would be a bountiful financial gift by western standards and that even immediate family members (other than parents) would not give such an amount of money in most cases, she told me that family members don't pay this money at all. This came as a shock to me, but the way she explained it made sense. She said that the obligatory 30,000 yen is only paid by guests and family members are not considered "guests". She went on to explain that family members (again, aside from parents) will often give a real gift to celebrate a marriage, but not cash. According to my student, an exception to this "rule" is the case where a sibling is very much older than a younger sibling and the relationship is more parental as a result of the large age gap. In such cases, a sibling might give cash much as a parent would.
From a Western perspective, this seems a bit strange as it appears to require people who are less close to a couple to offer up more than family members. However, in Japan, the money is being used to pay for the facility where the reception (often called a "wedding party" by the Japanese) is held (often a hotel), the catering, and gift bags given to the guests. In other words, the 30,000 yen is the guest paying for his or her own "good time" at the party and not really a "gift" to the couple. The guests shoulder the burden of the cost of the celebration and not much more than that when the excessive cost of the hotel, which is sometimes between 1,000,000 ($9,315) and 2,000,000 yen ($18,630), is factored into the equation. Considering that family members won't be receiving souvenirs and sometimes don't partake of the catered food the same way as other guests, it makes a bit of sense that they don't pay what amounts to an "entrance fee" to the event.
From my perspective, this situation seems to have both advantages and disadvantages over the Western approach to wedding gifts. If you follow any trends in weddings back home these days, you'll notice that couples often treat their wedding as an opportunity to get as much cash from friends and family as possible. Many of them have already lived together for awhile and don't need much for their households so they try to coerce guests into giving them cash only or to choose from a small pool of very pricey high profile gifts. Rather than the wedding being an opportunity for people to offer their good wishes and a gift that will help the couple start their lives, they're being treated as a chance to milk their friends and family like cash cows so some lavish spending can be done by the couple on a vacation, car, etc. at everyone else's expense.
The Japanese approach to wedding gifts doesn't allow for this sort of crass exploitation of the event. In fact, the Japanese method is aimed at using the money to give guests a memorable experience though the drawback is that it's an experience the guest is footing the tab for. In fact, the worst point of this is that guests have no flexibility about what or how much they give in many cases and the "gift" is given most times out of obligation rather than good cheer and wishing the couple well. In the West, even if a couple asks you to give cash only (which is actually bad manners but people do it anyway), you can disregard their opportunism and do whatever you want. One could say that the money given at weddings in Japan supports the wedding industry and could be better spent on providing things the new couple may need.
My student said she had attended about 10 wedding recptions so far and each time had forked over the princely sum of 30,000 yen. When I asked her if her experiences made her consider what she'd like to do for her reception should she decide to marry in the future, she said she'd like to have a small "restaurant party" which is far less expensive, smaller, and only invites close friends. However, she said that, in the end, she's forked over a ton of dough to her friends and feels like she'd like to get some of it back so she'll likely have a lavish reception of her own some day to balance the scales.
My relatively simplistic understanding of cash gifts in Japan was rather mixed up with my Western notions of why we give money. In fact, even when I know otherwise, it's difficult to separate the idea that we give money as a gift in the West to offer future security or assets to a person in the future. In Japan, money is given to cover costs of an event to which guests are invited, not as a personal bonus in celebration of an event.
At funerals, my student told me somewhat token amounts of money are given (about 5,000 yen ($46) for coworkers, 10,000 yen ($93) for closer friends or those who are older and have a higher status job) because the guest is not being treated to a lavishly catered experience. At weddings, however, she told me that the standard amount is 30,000 yen ($280) for any guest who isn't too young or underemployed to pay it. When I told her that this would be a bountiful financial gift by western standards and that even immediate family members (other than parents) would not give such an amount of money in most cases, she told me that family members don't pay this money at all. This came as a shock to me, but the way she explained it made sense. She said that the obligatory 30,000 yen is only paid by guests and family members are not considered "guests". She went on to explain that family members (again, aside from parents) will often give a real gift to celebrate a marriage, but not cash. According to my student, an exception to this "rule" is the case where a sibling is very much older than a younger sibling and the relationship is more parental as a result of the large age gap. In such cases, a sibling might give cash much as a parent would.
From a Western perspective, this seems a bit strange as it appears to require people who are less close to a couple to offer up more than family members. However, in Japan, the money is being used to pay for the facility where the reception (often called a "wedding party" by the Japanese) is held (often a hotel), the catering, and gift bags given to the guests. In other words, the 30,000 yen is the guest paying for his or her own "good time" at the party and not really a "gift" to the couple. The guests shoulder the burden of the cost of the celebration and not much more than that when the excessive cost of the hotel, which is sometimes between 1,000,000 ($9,315) and 2,000,000 yen ($18,630), is factored into the equation. Considering that family members won't be receiving souvenirs and sometimes don't partake of the catered food the same way as other guests, it makes a bit of sense that they don't pay what amounts to an "entrance fee" to the event.
From my perspective, this situation seems to have both advantages and disadvantages over the Western approach to wedding gifts. If you follow any trends in weddings back home these days, you'll notice that couples often treat their wedding as an opportunity to get as much cash from friends and family as possible. Many of them have already lived together for awhile and don't need much for their households so they try to coerce guests into giving them cash only or to choose from a small pool of very pricey high profile gifts. Rather than the wedding being an opportunity for people to offer their good wishes and a gift that will help the couple start their lives, they're being treated as a chance to milk their friends and family like cash cows so some lavish spending can be done by the couple on a vacation, car, etc. at everyone else's expense.
The Japanese approach to wedding gifts doesn't allow for this sort of crass exploitation of the event. In fact, the Japanese method is aimed at using the money to give guests a memorable experience though the drawback is that it's an experience the guest is footing the tab for. In fact, the worst point of this is that guests have no flexibility about what or how much they give in many cases and the "gift" is given most times out of obligation rather than good cheer and wishing the couple well. In the West, even if a couple asks you to give cash only (which is actually bad manners but people do it anyway), you can disregard their opportunism and do whatever you want. One could say that the money given at weddings in Japan supports the wedding industry and could be better spent on providing things the new couple may need.
My student said she had attended about 10 wedding recptions so far and each time had forked over the princely sum of 30,000 yen. When I asked her if her experiences made her consider what she'd like to do for her reception should she decide to marry in the future, she said she'd like to have a small "restaurant party" which is far less expensive, smaller, and only invites close friends. However, she said that, in the end, she's forked over a ton of dough to her friends and feels like she'd like to get some of it back so she'll likely have a lavish reception of her own some day to balance the scales.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Cultural Contributions - part 2
(Part 1 is here)
A good indication of how mainstream some elements of Japanese culture are in the U.S. is reflected in sales like the one pictured above.
In terms of what I see as Japan's long-lasting impact on other cultures up to this, I tend to see much of the obvious. Since I currently reside in Japan, it's a bit difficult for me to pick up on things which have had a subtle impact as I'm seeing through the eyes of the media rather than as someone residing in a country other than Japan.
The strongest influences that I believe Japan has had are those on popular culture. Mainly, I think they've shared their culture in these areas:
A good indication of how mainstream some elements of Japanese culture are in the U.S. is reflected in sales like the one pictured above.In terms of what I see as Japan's long-lasting impact on other cultures up to this, I tend to see much of the obvious. Since I currently reside in Japan, it's a bit difficult for me to pick up on things which have had a subtle impact as I'm seeing through the eyes of the media rather than as someone residing in a country other than Japan.
The strongest influences that I believe Japan has had are those on popular culture. Mainly, I think they've shared their culture in these areas:
- Anime-style artwork and action. I've noticed that traditional comic book-style has been altered or supplanted in many ways by huge-eyed, tiny-chinned looks. Even when some looks aren't direct copies, many are distorted to fit a similar look. I don't think this is going away any time soon as it dovetails very nicely with the move in the West to infantilize everyone and everything popular. If you look around at trends, you'll notice that everything seems to be moving toward removing all signs of maturity from pop icons including body hair and hints of wrinkles. Also, most actors are considered physically most desirable if they fit the "Q-tip" ideal - big head, tiny body which is also a part of anime. While I realize big heads are a part of all cartoons, it wasn't the norm that long, skinny bodies sat were the norm before. It was usually big heads on stubby, funny bodies or huge grotesquely muscled ones. Anime-style suits this trend very well though I don't believe Japan is in any way responsible for the trend toward infantilizing people and promoting it as attractive or an ideal.
- Food culture. I think Japanese cuisine has only partially penetrated most cultures but it will continue to do so, though most likely in a modified format for each culture that adopts it. The main impediment right now to Japanese cuisine going completely mainstream around the world is a lack of a fast food equivalents with high name recognition and low prices. One of these days, someone is going to work out a formula for dumbing down the core cuisine and serving it up cheap and fast and it'll find even broader acceptance than it has already. I think the push to move away from meat and foods high on the food chain may aid this as soy-based foods will hold more and more appeal as long as they are modified to suit Western tastes.
- Karaoke. I think this is going to be around for awhile and, like sushi, will be something that is always going to be a part of the Western cultures though clearly it'll be more or less popular in certain areas.
- A greater sense of responsibility at a younger age. I've noticed that Japanese young people, while they tend to remain more dependent into adulthood, face their lives with a greater sense of personal and interpersonal responsibility. Their attitude is not as self-centered as you tend to see in the West. They don't address every experience with a "what's in it for me" attitude.
- Fiscal conservatism. The Japanese are world-class savers and expert at deferring purchases in cases where making them would require them to go into debt. They have extremely low credit card debt on a per capita basis. While you do have people blowing money on expensive name brand goods, you don't have them racking up debt to do it.
- Food portions and menu diversity. This is a point of culture which the West, and America in particular needs rather badly, but it's unlikely to make in-roads for a variety of reasons. First of all, diversity requires more time and effort and people in the States have seen food as something that should be gotten out of the way rather than labored over. However, I think that the tendency among most people to eat a mix of items in small portions is part of what contributes to longevity in Japan.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Cultural Contributions - part 1
In the comments section of one of my other posts, Michael asked me what I felt was Japan's cultural direction and/or contribution to the rest of the world and whether or not I believed that Japan was headed in one direction or another or just wandering aimlessly. I wrote a long and involved answer thinking all the while that maybe a post would be a better way to answer it and, as I was reviewing my answer in a preview, Blogger disconnected me and trashed the entire reply. So, I concluded that fate had intervened and maybe a post (which will auto-save as I work on it) would be a better way to answer this interesting question.
Before I get to the answer(s), I'd like to make it clear that I'm only offering a perspective and an opinion and I'm not presenting myself as any sort of definitive expert on this topic. To be honest, I think no one, even a researcher on culture, is really qualified to answer it because it's too vast a question covering much of the world. Even if you could be well-versed in the movement of a culture, you couldn't be well-versed on the impact that culture has had world-wide without the perspective of a lot more history. Life is simply too short. So, before undies become tightly-wadded and keyboards grow hot with venomous rebuttals, keep in mind that these are just a few ideas from someone who has lived here awhile doing her best to answer a question a nice fellow asked her. Feel free to offer your ideas as well in the comments, but remember that none of us are any more qualified than the rest of us in this regard, no matter how confident we may be in our status as armchair experts on Japan and that any jerks will be bounced in comment moderation. Without further adieu, I will finally get to the point.
I arrived in Japan during the last few years of its economic bubble. For those who are not well-versed in what this is, I will tell you that Japan enjoyed a brief time when their economy expanded rapidly and it seemed they had a Midas touch when it came to making successful products. Those who are outside of Japan may remember it as the time when Japan went around buying up real estate and pricey artwork around the world and people in the U.S. started smashing Japanese-made goods in protest of how bad their success was making us look. Money was so plentiful in Japan at that time that local governments were thinking of ways to waste the money they were raking in, possibly on gold-plated statues and what-not. The perception was that the Japanese were a force to be reckoned with that could eventually unseat the U.S. as the biggest economic power in the world.
Being here when the bubble started was a good time for expatriates. Wages for teachers were high and conditions relatively cushy, both because the Japanese had money to burn. It was before everyone and his brother came here to work for a year or so and the market wasn't as saturated. The Japanese you taught were generally pretty arrogant about Japan's superior work ethic, education system, and product quality. This attitude was famously parodied in various comedy programs as Western actors pretended to be Japanese and denounced Americans as lazy, stupid, and incapable of making high quality products. While this attitude wasn't necessarily shoved in our faces all the time, it wasn't hidden or subdued when the topic happened to come up. If you have lived in Japan for any length of time, you know that humbleness and subtlety are the order of the day and, for anyone to express superiority in an overt fashion is not the norm.
The bubble eventually burst as the personal computer and Internet boom were peaking over the horizon. Japan still lead the world in cars, televisions, personal stereo equipment and VCRs, but it didn't have a toehold in the burgeoning computer business. As Japanese electronics companies struggled to make their mark in the computer industry, and only Sony really got a decent footing internationally and NEC domestically, the smug started to wear off of the Japanese sense of superiority. Instead of leading the world, they were starting to follow, and feeling a bit like they couldn't keep up.
It's not like Japan wasn't still owning or doing well in certain markets like console gaming systems and cell phones, but rather that the money was no longer being dumped at their feet in huge piles and they were being edged out of new markets and seeing demand for their old market goods wither. As time went by, the superior attitudes I experienced when I first arrived vanished and were replaced by expressions of concern about a certain level of inferiority when it came to adjusting to the demands of the marketplace and their ability to innovate. In particular, a lot of the old Japanese businesses who made a strong mark domestically started to have stronger concerns about brand awareness and being able to meaningfully break into world markets.
I wasn't here before the bubble, but based on what I know about what Japanese culture values in terms of personality, I wonder if this was a full circle for Japan. That is, from post-war defeat and feelings of inferiority to smug and superior and back to feelings of inferiority. The puff up didn't last all that long from a historical view. However, in terms of lasting impressions, I believe Japan has left its mark. For one thing, people used to associate Japan with the sort of cheap, low quality goods which are currently associated with China. I would be surprised if the image of Japan as a producer of efficient, high technology, small, and well-designed goods changed any time in the near future.
In terms of the question I was asked about the direction Japan is headed, I think that there are a lot of possibilities, but my best guesses are:
(to be continued)
Before I get to the answer(s), I'd like to make it clear that I'm only offering a perspective and an opinion and I'm not presenting myself as any sort of definitive expert on this topic. To be honest, I think no one, even a researcher on culture, is really qualified to answer it because it's too vast a question covering much of the world. Even if you could be well-versed in the movement of a culture, you couldn't be well-versed on the impact that culture has had world-wide without the perspective of a lot more history. Life is simply too short. So, before undies become tightly-wadded and keyboards grow hot with venomous rebuttals, keep in mind that these are just a few ideas from someone who has lived here awhile doing her best to answer a question a nice fellow asked her. Feel free to offer your ideas as well in the comments, but remember that none of us are any more qualified than the rest of us in this regard, no matter how confident we may be in our status as armchair experts on Japan and that any jerks will be bounced in comment moderation. Without further adieu, I will finally get to the point.
I arrived in Japan during the last few years of its economic bubble. For those who are not well-versed in what this is, I will tell you that Japan enjoyed a brief time when their economy expanded rapidly and it seemed they had a Midas touch when it came to making successful products. Those who are outside of Japan may remember it as the time when Japan went around buying up real estate and pricey artwork around the world and people in the U.S. started smashing Japanese-made goods in protest of how bad their success was making us look. Money was so plentiful in Japan at that time that local governments were thinking of ways to waste the money they were raking in, possibly on gold-plated statues and what-not. The perception was that the Japanese were a force to be reckoned with that could eventually unseat the U.S. as the biggest economic power in the world.
Being here when the bubble started was a good time for expatriates. Wages for teachers were high and conditions relatively cushy, both because the Japanese had money to burn. It was before everyone and his brother came here to work for a year or so and the market wasn't as saturated. The Japanese you taught were generally pretty arrogant about Japan's superior work ethic, education system, and product quality. This attitude was famously parodied in various comedy programs as Western actors pretended to be Japanese and denounced Americans as lazy, stupid, and incapable of making high quality products. While this attitude wasn't necessarily shoved in our faces all the time, it wasn't hidden or subdued when the topic happened to come up. If you have lived in Japan for any length of time, you know that humbleness and subtlety are the order of the day and, for anyone to express superiority in an overt fashion is not the norm.
The bubble eventually burst as the personal computer and Internet boom were peaking over the horizon. Japan still lead the world in cars, televisions, personal stereo equipment and VCRs, but it didn't have a toehold in the burgeoning computer business. As Japanese electronics companies struggled to make their mark in the computer industry, and only Sony really got a decent footing internationally and NEC domestically, the smug started to wear off of the Japanese sense of superiority. Instead of leading the world, they were starting to follow, and feeling a bit like they couldn't keep up.
It's not like Japan wasn't still owning or doing well in certain markets like console gaming systems and cell phones, but rather that the money was no longer being dumped at their feet in huge piles and they were being edged out of new markets and seeing demand for their old market goods wither. As time went by, the superior attitudes I experienced when I first arrived vanished and were replaced by expressions of concern about a certain level of inferiority when it came to adjusting to the demands of the marketplace and their ability to innovate. In particular, a lot of the old Japanese businesses who made a strong mark domestically started to have stronger concerns about brand awareness and being able to meaningfully break into world markets.
I wasn't here before the bubble, but based on what I know about what Japanese culture values in terms of personality, I wonder if this was a full circle for Japan. That is, from post-war defeat and feelings of inferiority to smug and superior and back to feelings of inferiority. The puff up didn't last all that long from a historical view. However, in terms of lasting impressions, I believe Japan has left its mark. For one thing, people used to associate Japan with the sort of cheap, low quality goods which are currently associated with China. I would be surprised if the image of Japan as a producer of efficient, high technology, small, and well-designed goods changed any time in the near future.
In terms of the question I was asked about the direction Japan is headed, I think that there are a lot of possibilities, but my best guesses are:
- Japan will continue to be associated with high technology and particularly with robotics. I think it will make this move because of the diminishing population and a desire to compensate for a lack of labor with mechanical assistance. I don't think it will make it's mark in homes worldwide with its technology as I don't believe that the Japanese developers can accurately market domestic products abroad as the needs of those living in Japan are different from those in other countries and most developers lack cross-cultural experience. I do believe they will license their core technologies and have a heavy influence on industry worldwide.
- Japan will gradually (and reluctantly) start to attempt to integrate more foreigners into the population. This change will occur at a glacial pace in terms of actual rights and acceptance of foreigners, but a faster pace in allowing more (legal) manual labor from Asian countries. I think it will continue to be seen around the world as insular. The population will continue to consider being Japanese as a matter of blood rather than of breeding.
- Japan will continue to be seen as America's lackey though it will very, very slowly inch away from that position as the U.S.'s status world-wide diminishes. However, until the North Korean political situation looks a bit less intimidating, Japan will continue to allow the U.S.'s foreign policy to heavily influence it and it will not be seen as any sort of world leader politically.
(to be continued)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Dominant and Recessive
My family by blood consists of 4 people, my mother, father, and older sister. All of them have black or dark brown hair and brown eyes, but me. I am the lone redhead with blue eyes in the family. That means there were plenty of jokes about my real father being the milkman from people who either didn't study or remember junior high-level human biology, or who simply thought that the joke was just too funny to let knowledge interfere with the potential guffaws as they displayed their sparkling wit via cliché humor.
For those who have blocked out the knowledge of rudimentary genetics which explains my family's physical disposition (or who just slept through it all to begin with), I'll mention that there are dominant and recessive genes. How these things work is rather complicated, but the way in which the concept is introduced to us in school is by talking about things like hair and eye color and explaining why there are more brown-haired and brown-eyed people in the world and fewer blonds, redheads, and green and blue-eyed people. Light hair and eyes are recessive traits (or so I was told) and if the genes for both light and dark hair and/or eyes genes are present, the dark characteristics will manifest.
In order to have a progeny with blue eyes or red hair, each parent must have a recessive trait's gene (such as red hair) and only pass on the recessive ones. So, my parents had the genes for both types of characteristics and passed the dominant ones on to my sister, but the recessive ones on to me. If the child has brown hair and blond hair genes, the child will have brown hair. So, the formula works out such that there's a greater probability of any person having dark hair and dark eyes, though the entire situation is probably about a thousand times more complex in the real world, but, trust me that the milkman did not have to be my father in order for me to be the lone person with light hair and eyes.
Lest you think this post has to do with educating you with my crude understanding of genotypes and phenotypes (and yes, I remembered those words from decades ago when I originally learned them and didn't pick them up from current research - hooray for the American education system), let me reassure you that my intention is to raise what I felt was an interesting cross-cultural difference.
This morning I was discussing blood type and personality with a student and asking her if she felt things like hair and eye color influence personality. For those who don't know, the Japanese believe blood type has a role in shaping character. It's always been my opinion that Japanese people hang personality traits on blood type because they are physically so much more similar than western folks. We can say a blond is dumb or a redhead temperamental, but they've all got dark hair. They have to go deeper than the surface to form their theories.
During the course of our discussion, my student asked me if there were more blond-haired, blue-eyed people than dark-haired people back home. I told her there were not and explained to her the whole dominant-recessive lesson we were taught in biology as the reason for this. At first, she was a little puzzled but then she had a moment of total understanding. She told me that Japanese kids learn the exact same lesson about dominant and recessive characteristics, but that they are taught that information using a different example as the basis for that information...can you guess what that might be?
To me, this is a fascinating reflection of each culture's residents' physical composition and the effect it has on their personality theories and educational methods. To you, well, perhaps it's just an interesting bit of trivia.
••••••••••••••••••••
If you couldn't guess, the answer was: Blood type.
For those who have blocked out the knowledge of rudimentary genetics which explains my family's physical disposition (or who just slept through it all to begin with), I'll mention that there are dominant and recessive genes. How these things work is rather complicated, but the way in which the concept is introduced to us in school is by talking about things like hair and eye color and explaining why there are more brown-haired and brown-eyed people in the world and fewer blonds, redheads, and green and blue-eyed people. Light hair and eyes are recessive traits (or so I was told) and if the genes for both light and dark hair and/or eyes genes are present, the dark characteristics will manifest.
In order to have a progeny with blue eyes or red hair, each parent must have a recessive trait's gene (such as red hair) and only pass on the recessive ones. So, my parents had the genes for both types of characteristics and passed the dominant ones on to my sister, but the recessive ones on to me. If the child has brown hair and blond hair genes, the child will have brown hair. So, the formula works out such that there's a greater probability of any person having dark hair and dark eyes, though the entire situation is probably about a thousand times more complex in the real world, but, trust me that the milkman did not have to be my father in order for me to be the lone person with light hair and eyes.
Lest you think this post has to do with educating you with my crude understanding of genotypes and phenotypes (and yes, I remembered those words from decades ago when I originally learned them and didn't pick them up from current research - hooray for the American education system), let me reassure you that my intention is to raise what I felt was an interesting cross-cultural difference.
This morning I was discussing blood type and personality with a student and asking her if she felt things like hair and eye color influence personality. For those who don't know, the Japanese believe blood type has a role in shaping character. It's always been my opinion that Japanese people hang personality traits on blood type because they are physically so much more similar than western folks. We can say a blond is dumb or a redhead temperamental, but they've all got dark hair. They have to go deeper than the surface to form their theories.
During the course of our discussion, my student asked me if there were more blond-haired, blue-eyed people than dark-haired people back home. I told her there were not and explained to her the whole dominant-recessive lesson we were taught in biology as the reason for this. At first, she was a little puzzled but then she had a moment of total understanding. She told me that Japanese kids learn the exact same lesson about dominant and recessive characteristics, but that they are taught that information using a different example as the basis for that information...can you guess what that might be?
To me, this is a fascinating reflection of each culture's residents' physical composition and the effect it has on their personality theories and educational methods. To you, well, perhaps it's just an interesting bit of trivia.
••••••••••••••••••••
If you couldn't guess, the answer was: Blood type.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Holding Hands
Quite some time ago, my husband did a language exchange with a Japanese woman in her mid 20s. This is a "classic" arrangement that most Japanese people dream of where both parties speak English for a designated time and then they both speak Japanese for an equal amount of time. I say it's a "dream" because it's a rare situation where a Japanese person can practice English without paying for it.
The arrangement was never really all that satisfactory for my husband because the Japanese woman did little to correct his speaking whereas she had all the benefits of an experienced English teacher. She also tended to ramble on at a level of Japanese which was too difficult for him to benefit from because the vocabulary was too high level and she spoke too quickly. Essentially, she just chatted away without making any adjustments or efforts that might help him gradually build his level.
Before he this arrangement ended, she told us a story that gave us pause. She had been corresponding with a foreign man who was in his early 50's and married. When I say "corresponding", I mean real letters, not e-mail. This exchange happened before the internet. I can't recall exactly how she got to know him, but I believe it was not through an initial face-to-face contact, but rather through some sort of pen pal organization. I do remember though that he received her letters at an address other than the one he and his wife resided at. It was also unclear whether or not the wife was aware of her husband's correspondence with a much younger Japanese woman.
During the course of the English portion of the exchange, the woman told us that he was visiting her in person in Japan and that, when they walked around Tokyo, they held hands. We asked her if he did anything more intimate than that like kissed her or hugged her and I believe she said he did hug her hello, but not much more than that. Both my husband and I told her that we felt the circumstances of their arrangement and the fact that most adult Western folks don't hold hands unless they are romantically involved or trying to keep a hold of a child suggested that he was after more than just a friendship.
The woman rejected the scenario we suggested was being played out and said he was simply a nice man and the hand-holding meant nothing. To this day, I'm not sure what became of her relationship with him or, for that much, what became of her. She moved to Yokohama after awhile and referred us to a different language exchange partner (who was actually more unsatisfactory and eventually my husband terminated the exchange with her). We never talked to her again.
In Japan, one thing you can't help but notice is that adults hold hands noticeably more often than they do in the U.S. Adult women in particular will hold each others hands on occasion in casual (non-romantic) situations that you wouldn't see adult women doing so back home. I can't say though that adult hand-holding between males and females is common. Usually, you only see it between those who appear romantically-interested in one another or have what looks to be a parent-child relationship. Given this, I do wonder why my husband's former language exchange partner was so sure the older fellow's intentions were free of romantic interest.
I've never discussed this topic with students or any other Japanese person, but I do wonder if Japanese women in particular are more comfortable with certain forms of physical contact between women. Somehow, I think two women holding hands back home would make people instantly think they were lesbians whereas it doesn't hold that connotation in Japan.
Another reason I believe they may be more comfortable with women touching other women is that, on more than one occasion, I've witnessed or been told about one woman playfully grab another woman's breast. In fact, there was once a Japanese T.V. commercial where a woman lost weight and her friend was shown visiting her for the first time since she'd slimmed down. The formerly chubby woman had retained her larger than average breasts and lost all her weight in her stomach, hips and thighs. The first thing the friend did was remark on how shapely she was and poke her finger right into the other woman's breast. Foreign women (including some of my former coworkers) teaching in Japan also have had their breasts grabbed by women they were teaching, though, fortunately, I have not been one of them.
The arrangement was never really all that satisfactory for my husband because the Japanese woman did little to correct his speaking whereas she had all the benefits of an experienced English teacher. She also tended to ramble on at a level of Japanese which was too difficult for him to benefit from because the vocabulary was too high level and she spoke too quickly. Essentially, she just chatted away without making any adjustments or efforts that might help him gradually build his level.
Before he this arrangement ended, she told us a story that gave us pause. She had been corresponding with a foreign man who was in his early 50's and married. When I say "corresponding", I mean real letters, not e-mail. This exchange happened before the internet. I can't recall exactly how she got to know him, but I believe it was not through an initial face-to-face contact, but rather through some sort of pen pal organization. I do remember though that he received her letters at an address other than the one he and his wife resided at. It was also unclear whether or not the wife was aware of her husband's correspondence with a much younger Japanese woman.
During the course of the English portion of the exchange, the woman told us that he was visiting her in person in Japan and that, when they walked around Tokyo, they held hands. We asked her if he did anything more intimate than that like kissed her or hugged her and I believe she said he did hug her hello, but not much more than that. Both my husband and I told her that we felt the circumstances of their arrangement and the fact that most adult Western folks don't hold hands unless they are romantically involved or trying to keep a hold of a child suggested that he was after more than just a friendship.
The woman rejected the scenario we suggested was being played out and said he was simply a nice man and the hand-holding meant nothing. To this day, I'm not sure what became of her relationship with him or, for that much, what became of her. She moved to Yokohama after awhile and referred us to a different language exchange partner (who was actually more unsatisfactory and eventually my husband terminated the exchange with her). We never talked to her again.
In Japan, one thing you can't help but notice is that adults hold hands noticeably more often than they do in the U.S. Adult women in particular will hold each others hands on occasion in casual (non-romantic) situations that you wouldn't see adult women doing so back home. I can't say though that adult hand-holding between males and females is common. Usually, you only see it between those who appear romantically-interested in one another or have what looks to be a parent-child relationship. Given this, I do wonder why my husband's former language exchange partner was so sure the older fellow's intentions were free of romantic interest.
I've never discussed this topic with students or any other Japanese person, but I do wonder if Japanese women in particular are more comfortable with certain forms of physical contact between women. Somehow, I think two women holding hands back home would make people instantly think they were lesbians whereas it doesn't hold that connotation in Japan.
Another reason I believe they may be more comfortable with women touching other women is that, on more than one occasion, I've witnessed or been told about one woman playfully grab another woman's breast. In fact, there was once a Japanese T.V. commercial where a woman lost weight and her friend was shown visiting her for the first time since she'd slimmed down. The formerly chubby woman had retained her larger than average breasts and lost all her weight in her stomach, hips and thighs. The first thing the friend did was remark on how shapely she was and poke her finger right into the other woman's breast. Foreign women (including some of my former coworkers) teaching in Japan also have had their breasts grabbed by women they were teaching, though, fortunately, I have not been one of them.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Run, Forrest(san), Run!
Yesterday evening while I was doing some late evening shopping at a local 99 yen shop, I saw a fellow do something which I've always felt was an "only in Japan" experience. First, it's important to set the scene. The shop is essentially a shoebox. It's probably no more than 15 feet wide (~4.5 m.) and 20 feet long (~6 m.) in terms of the longest stretch of space in each direction one can actually tread upon. Traveling from end to end of the store on the longest side at a normal stride would take less than 7 seconds.
As I was approaching the check-out, another customer walked up and stood in front of the unmanned cash register. An employee who was "at the back" of the store (that's about 4 seconds, to you and me) upon seeing the customer approach sprinted into action and attempted to "run" to the register to assist the customer. In mid-sprint, he knocked over a bunch of sundry goods piled on the end of the aisle. For those who haven't had the pleasure, many small Japanese stores have aisles capped and semi-blocked by half open boxes serving as ad hoc displays. They also serve as a challenging obstacle course for customers who grow rapidly bored spending time looking at products they might like to purchase. It gives the experience a festive "rat in a maze" feel and you can really feel like you've accomplished something if you manage to traverse the entire place without knocking something over. They also provide social interaction opportunities for employees and customers when items are invariably pushed over. Within seconds, helpful assistants usually rush over to pick them up and embarrassed customers apologize. It's all part of the colorful fabric of Japanese society which encourages all to be friendly and get to know one another through collisions with random objects.
The extraordinarily diligent employee in the 99 yen shop likely saved a total of half a second by running rather than walking, though he lost that gain because he had to pick up the items that toppled. Before anyone gets the idea that this is a stellar example of an attempt to provide the best service to the customer, let me say that I've gone to the same shop with different staff there and stood in the empty store and waited for a cashier for a minute before one decided to surface. This isn't about this superior service in this shop as 99 yen shops are hardly making the sort of cash that allows them to pay the sorts of salaries that allow them to train people in all the corporate niceties. There was, however, an older fellow in the shop at the same time who may have been a supervisor and it could be the young man was new and wanted to impress. I don't blame him. We all would likely do the same thing in his shoes.
When this fellow pointlessly and clumsily ran from one end of the shop to the other, it reminded me that the office ladies (often called "O.L.s") at my former office used to do the same thing. Well, it wasn't quite the same thing. The man in the 99 yen shop tried to actually run and the office ladies rarely knocked things over. He literally leaped from where he was to rush to the register. The office ladies did what can be called "the office girl trot". The trot seemed designed to provide the illusion of running by pumping legs and arms in an animated fashion while not actually increasing one's velocity more than what a quick stride would accomplish. Nonetheless, this sort of trotting and running across short distances in the office occurred daily, even when there was absolutely no reason to hurry.
I asked different office ladies on several occasions why they bothered to do this and they always said that it was to get there faster. When I pointed out that the office was sufficiently small that they were likely shaving no more than seconds off their time by trotting, they tended to shrug and smile. I'm not sure even they knew why they did it, though I had my guesses.
I figured the main reason was that they saw other people do it and they felt they should as well. It wasn't that they believed that it had much practical value. In fact, I'd wager that, if they sprinted from point to point every time they traversed the office in this fashion, they might save the company a whole half minute a day at the very most. In the end, I concluded that this running was more about the illusion of looking like one was extremely diligent or applying as much energy as possible to doing their work rather than actually saving time.
There may be people who sprint around the office back home, but I never worked in one where people did so. I think that a lot of folks in the U.S. would perceive such behavior as inappropriate, like running in the halls at school. The main problem with it is that running can be much nosier and more distracting as feet pound on the floor and footsteps while walking are more muted. I always knew when an office lady was "rushing" to give me a reschedule or some paperwork because it was clearly preceded by the pitter-patter of little feet trotting my way. At any rate, if anyone else has experience with this and has a better explanation for why employees run, I'd be very curious to hear it.
As I was approaching the check-out, another customer walked up and stood in front of the unmanned cash register. An employee who was "at the back" of the store (that's about 4 seconds, to you and me) upon seeing the customer approach sprinted into action and attempted to "run" to the register to assist the customer. In mid-sprint, he knocked over a bunch of sundry goods piled on the end of the aisle. For those who haven't had the pleasure, many small Japanese stores have aisles capped and semi-blocked by half open boxes serving as ad hoc displays. They also serve as a challenging obstacle course for customers who grow rapidly bored spending time looking at products they might like to purchase. It gives the experience a festive "rat in a maze" feel and you can really feel like you've accomplished something if you manage to traverse the entire place without knocking something over. They also provide social interaction opportunities for employees and customers when items are invariably pushed over. Within seconds, helpful assistants usually rush over to pick them up and embarrassed customers apologize. It's all part of the colorful fabric of Japanese society which encourages all to be friendly and get to know one another through collisions with random objects.
The extraordinarily diligent employee in the 99 yen shop likely saved a total of half a second by running rather than walking, though he lost that gain because he had to pick up the items that toppled. Before anyone gets the idea that this is a stellar example of an attempt to provide the best service to the customer, let me say that I've gone to the same shop with different staff there and stood in the empty store and waited for a cashier for a minute before one decided to surface. This isn't about this superior service in this shop as 99 yen shops are hardly making the sort of cash that allows them to pay the sorts of salaries that allow them to train people in all the corporate niceties. There was, however, an older fellow in the shop at the same time who may have been a supervisor and it could be the young man was new and wanted to impress. I don't blame him. We all would likely do the same thing in his shoes.
When this fellow pointlessly and clumsily ran from one end of the shop to the other, it reminded me that the office ladies (often called "O.L.s") at my former office used to do the same thing. Well, it wasn't quite the same thing. The man in the 99 yen shop tried to actually run and the office ladies rarely knocked things over. He literally leaped from where he was to rush to the register. The office ladies did what can be called "the office girl trot". The trot seemed designed to provide the illusion of running by pumping legs and arms in an animated fashion while not actually increasing one's velocity more than what a quick stride would accomplish. Nonetheless, this sort of trotting and running across short distances in the office occurred daily, even when there was absolutely no reason to hurry.
I asked different office ladies on several occasions why they bothered to do this and they always said that it was to get there faster. When I pointed out that the office was sufficiently small that they were likely shaving no more than seconds off their time by trotting, they tended to shrug and smile. I'm not sure even they knew why they did it, though I had my guesses.
I figured the main reason was that they saw other people do it and they felt they should as well. It wasn't that they believed that it had much practical value. In fact, I'd wager that, if they sprinted from point to point every time they traversed the office in this fashion, they might save the company a whole half minute a day at the very most. In the end, I concluded that this running was more about the illusion of looking like one was extremely diligent or applying as much energy as possible to doing their work rather than actually saving time.
There may be people who sprint around the office back home, but I never worked in one where people did so. I think that a lot of folks in the U.S. would perceive such behavior as inappropriate, like running in the halls at school. The main problem with it is that running can be much nosier and more distracting as feet pound on the floor and footsteps while walking are more muted. I always knew when an office lady was "rushing" to give me a reschedule or some paperwork because it was clearly preceded by the pitter-patter of little feet trotting my way. At any rate, if anyone else has experience with this and has a better explanation for why employees run, I'd be very curious to hear it.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Milestones
Two young women chat in the station in their kimono on adulthood day.Each culture has its ages where milestones are reached. In the U.S., the major milestones are generally considered to be at 16, 18, and 21. These ages are important because they are significant legal milestones. At 16, you can drive. At 18, you can be drafted, vote, marry without parental consent, and be legally tried as an adult. At 21, you can drink alcohol. These ages do vary from state to state and have probably changed a bit since when I hit these ages, but they are largely the same in most places in the U.S.
These ages are also milestones from the viewpoint of how others perceive you. In my family, my mother loved to repeatedly say that there was absolutely no "dating" until age 16, and it still continues to be the age at which more conservative parents feel it's appropriate for their kids to start actively engaging in more formalized relationships with a significant other, though this is less and less the case as the age of the onset of puberty goes parenting notions become more liberal. Eighteen is the age at which you are expected to start taking financial responsibility for yourself and at 21, you should be comporting yourself as an adult to a great extent.
Age-based milestones are probably more diverse across cultures than many other artificially-assigned aspects. That is, while things like food and dress are directly related to the environment that a group of people live in, age-based notions are much more related to subjective concepts of maturity (though certainly not in all respects as the onset of puberty factors into all perceptions of adulthood). In Japan, there are milestone ages but there are fewer of them at younger ages and more of them at older ages compared to the U.S. The age at which one is considered an adult in Japan is 20 and all people who turned 20 in the previous year celebrated their coming of age on January 14 this year.
A young woman and man, both attired for adulthood day activities, chat on the train.If you read any Japan blogs or news sites, you will have seen pictures relating to this and little snippets about what it all means. This particular holiday holds a good deal of interest for foreigners because it's the one day of the year when you see a large number of young, well-made-up women walking around in their finest kimono. It's a day when the "old" view of Japan as having a plethora of refined, fresh beauties in traditional dress mingles most vividly with the newer, more mundane version which tends only to appeal to the fetishistic appetites of gaijin when schoolgirl uniforms or cosplaying women come into view.
Young women walk the streets of Ikebukuro in their kimono, freezing their buns off on a chilly winter day with only a fur stole to comfort them.For some Japanese women, this day is a rather complex one with a relatively unglamorous, but warm-hearted goal in mind. One of my students turned 20 in the previous year and she filled me in on the "behind the scenes" situation for a young woman approaching this day. Several months before the actual holiday, her parents took her to a hotel where her hair and make up were professionally done and a series of photographs of her in her adulthood day kimono were taken by a professional photographer.
The whole experience was tiring and unpleasant for her as it took a long time to prepare her and wrap her up in her kimono. The make-up was also quite itchy and the woman who prepped was a bit terse and pushy. In the end, she wasn't very happy with the pictures and believed that she never quite managed to pose as the photographer asked. She felt her chin looked bulgy when her head was tilted down and the photographer kept asking her to hold it differently, but she never quite managed. I can't say that I agreed with her regarding the photographs. I thought she looked beautiful.
A group of young men huddle in the station before heading off to their adulthood day destination.The strange thing about this holiday is that women go through a lot to dress in traditional clothes and do their hair and make-up just right, but men just put on a suit. I'm not sure why men aren't running off to a professional and getting an artificial topknot glued to heir heads and forced to wear traditional men's formal kimono, but there appears to be no such expectation for them. Men get a much more comfortable and inexpensive day when they turn 20.
For the young adults celebrating this day, the biggest draw, and for some the only draw, is that it allows them to have a reunion with all of their friends from elementary school to high school. It's the one time when there's a good chance that people they haven't seen for a decade will come together and they can all catch up on each others lives. The more grandiose aspects like being allowed to vote and being considered a "member of society" aren't looming in the front of their minds. However, I'm guessing that having a day of reunion probably runs neck and neck in importance with being allowed to being legally allowed to drink in the minds of a good many 20-year-olds.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
I Could Be Happier
There are some things I have never done in Japan. If you're thinking things like go to an onsen and allow the locals to oogle my pasty naked gaijin body or climb Mount Fuji, you'd be right, but that's not actually the sort of thing I'm talking about. While there are a good many tourist activities I've never bothered to do (and a good many activities that I have done and a good many things I've done that some folks never do), I'm talking about the type of thing I used to do back home all the time but haven't done in 18 years in Japan.
Sometimes the reason I don't do some of these things is that it's too expensive. It can sometimes be because of communication problems. And sometimes it's because there is a qualitative difference in the experience compared to back home such that I decide it's not worthwhile. Generally though, it's a combination of all of these things. A good example of all three of these reasons coming into play would be driving a car. An example of the expense reason would be to buy a new DVD at a brick and mortar establishment. There are a lot of perfectly mundane things I've never done here which I routinely and thoughtlessly did back home which I ceased doing as part of my normal routine.
Another perhaps less expected example would be going to a beauty salon for a hair cut. Lest you think I have hair trailing on the ground after 18 years of unshorn glory, let me assure you that my hair has been cut, but not by the expert hands of a trained and experienced stylist. My husband trims my hair about once every 6-8 months. I make it easy for him by requiring only that he cut across the bottom in a straight line when it's wet and combed neatly. Sometimes this works okay, but sometimes I think it'd be good if a dotted line were included as he accidentally cuts it at an angle. However, since I have wavy hair, it's not the sort of thing which can be detected and the important thing is the split ends are gone.
Initially, I didn't go to beauty salons for my hair cuts because I couldn't communicate what I wanted. Now, though I'm pretty sure I could stop them from giving me a crew cut, I have limited faith in the ability of Japanese cutters to handle my hair properly. Japanese hair is different in texture and thickness than most western hair and tends to lay differently. In fact, this is something which is reflected in the advertising that you see in English language magazine advertisements in Japan. Some salons will specifically state that they know how to handle western hair so you can trust their ability to give you a cut.
All that being said, I've known plenty of foreign folks who were satisfied with the cuts they've gotten and I'm pretty sure I would as well if I were interested in giving it a try. Men in particular appear to get a lavish treatment when they go to certain barbers here. My husband doesn't go to one (I cut his hair), but male friends and acquaintances tell me that they get their ears cleaned and necks shaved as part of the experience.
Apparently, I'm missing more than just a professional cut in my avoidance of beauty salons as part of the service offered is "happy". However, I think I'll be happier keeping my money and having my husband do the job.
Sometimes the reason I don't do some of these things is that it's too expensive. It can sometimes be because of communication problems. And sometimes it's because there is a qualitative difference in the experience compared to back home such that I decide it's not worthwhile. Generally though, it's a combination of all of these things. A good example of all three of these reasons coming into play would be driving a car. An example of the expense reason would be to buy a new DVD at a brick and mortar establishment. There are a lot of perfectly mundane things I've never done here which I routinely and thoughtlessly did back home which I ceased doing as part of my normal routine.
Another perhaps less expected example would be going to a beauty salon for a hair cut. Lest you think I have hair trailing on the ground after 18 years of unshorn glory, let me assure you that my hair has been cut, but not by the expert hands of a trained and experienced stylist. My husband trims my hair about once every 6-8 months. I make it easy for him by requiring only that he cut across the bottom in a straight line when it's wet and combed neatly. Sometimes this works okay, but sometimes I think it'd be good if a dotted line were included as he accidentally cuts it at an angle. However, since I have wavy hair, it's not the sort of thing which can be detected and the important thing is the split ends are gone.
Initially, I didn't go to beauty salons for my hair cuts because I couldn't communicate what I wanted. Now, though I'm pretty sure I could stop them from giving me a crew cut, I have limited faith in the ability of Japanese cutters to handle my hair properly. Japanese hair is different in texture and thickness than most western hair and tends to lay differently. In fact, this is something which is reflected in the advertising that you see in English language magazine advertisements in Japan. Some salons will specifically state that they know how to handle western hair so you can trust their ability to give you a cut.
All that being said, I've known plenty of foreign folks who were satisfied with the cuts they've gotten and I'm pretty sure I would as well if I were interested in giving it a try. Men in particular appear to get a lavish treatment when they go to certain barbers here. My husband doesn't go to one (I cut his hair), but male friends and acquaintances tell me that they get their ears cleaned and necks shaved as part of the experience.
Apparently, I'm missing more than just a professional cut in my avoidance of beauty salons as part of the service offered is "happy". However, I think I'll be happier keeping my money and having my husband do the job.
Friday, January 04, 2008
All Hail Anpanman
Anpanman is a popular cartoon character in Japan, particularly among the age range that spans from the diaper-wearing to the not-quite-interested-in-the-opposite-sex-yet-but-starting-to-get-curious set. Anpanman is sort of like the Japanese version of Superman... if Superman's head was made out of a bun filled with sweetened beans which was replaceable with a new bun any time it got wet or dirty. He fights against evil (mainly germs) though considering that water and dirt are his version of Kryptonite, I'd think evil could easily get the best of him with a squirt gun or a bucket of mud. Given the Japanese obsession with food, it seems very appropriate that a superhero is made of a traditional foodstuff.
I think his greatest strength lies in his power to act as a corporate shill and convenient icon to place on toys, clothes, and other products in order to get kids to compel their parents to buy them Anpanman-themed goods. In fact, if he used this power wisely, he could wipe out all the germs in the world by asking his legions of little followers to whine until their mommies scrubbed every dirty surface spotlessly clean.
All hail Anpanman and kneel in supplication and he shall reward you with clean domiciles and fresh, tasty, wholesome bean cakes!On New Year's day, my husband and I stumbled across this idol erected for the tiny worshipers of Anpanman attached to a fire escape. It is conveniently placed at a height at which his followers are forced to look up at him but can easily see him without craning their necks as they kneel before him. Since this Anpanman church was closed due to the national holiday (and I'm certain they didn't want to be disrespectful and draw all the foot traffic away from the nearby Shinto shrine... as it surely would have had folks been allowed to stand at the feet of this brightly-colored Anpanman idol), we didn't witness any followers paying homage to him on the day the picture was taken. However, I'm pretty sure that his followers bow and face his statue several times a day in humble supplication.
(Note: Tongue has been firmly in cheek here.)
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Watering the Sidewalks "Demystified" (Uchimizu)
A fellow who works at a restaurant just finished tossing waste water onto the street in front of the establishment.One thing you can't miss while living in Japan is people "watering" the sidewalks, pavement, and concrete in front of their homes and business establishments. In Japanese, this custom is called "uchimizu". Most often, this can be seen in the summer time and I have been told on several occasions that this is done to "cool off" the surrounding area. Personally, I have my doubts that occasionally spraying or ladling a bit of water on the steaming hot pavement in Tokyo in when the temperature is in the mid 80's and we have 80% humidity does much of anything to "cool" the area, but I'm no expert on such matters.
The other reasons given for this is that the glistening pavement looks nice and clean and keeping it wet keeps dust down. Presumably, that means the pavement pounding of passing pedestrians (say that 3 times really fast) isn't going to kick up dust that clings to the front of buildings. Mind you, you wouldn't conclude this from looking at the front of most buildings. Most of them have a fair bit of sooty-looking build-up from years of exposure to Tokyo pollution.
Somewhat surprisingly, there have been campaigns to promote uchimizu and it is considered the act of a good citizen. The reason I find it a little unusual that this would be something which is actively promoted is that this wastes water. However, it should be noted that the campaign does try to encourage people to use water collected from rainfall or from bathwater that is no longer useful rather than to turn their hoses out on the streets. On occasion, I have noticed people collecting water in basins from their downspouts and I believe they are doing so in preparation for a little uchimizu. It's quite noticeable when you see it because old plastic buckets, basins, or other liquid catching receptacles are frankly not that tidy or attractive-looking and seeing them in front of people's homes or businesses is atypical in largely tidy Tokyo. Now, I know why they are there and I have to applaud the folks who make this effort, even if I personally am not convinced (nor unconvinced for that matter) of the merits of it all.
Unfortunately, I most often see people in my area doing their uchimizu in one of two ways. They either do as the fellow above has done and toss out cleaning waste water (this picture was taken in the winter so it's clearly not about "cooling" the area) or they spray it down with a hose (or both). The campaign also encourages folks not to trouble others while they do this but all too often I see people only reluctantly turning their hoses away as pedestrians and bicycles approach. I guess that the busy sidewalks and streets make wetting the pavement too time-consuming if you have to pause for every passerby.
The main idea behind the uchimizu custom seems to be two-fold. One is that the act of ladling the water can be contemplative or meditative. I believe this is something which mainly applies to people who perform it as part of their usual habits at temples or monasteries. Somehow, I doubt the people quickly flicking pans of water onto the street out front are being very thoughtful in the 5 second it takes to empty them. The second part is that one is supposed to feel the "coolness" of the water by being in proximity to it or handling to it. This is probably part of a Japanese sensibility that doesn't translate well to western thinking and part of what forms their cultural connection with nature in ways to which we cannot relate as those notions are related to shared cultural mindsets.
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