Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [26]
2008–09 Japan is hit by the global recession, its share market tumbling and Toyota announcing its first-ever loss. A rapid turnover of prime ministers since 2006 does not bode well for facing a major crisis.
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
The Culture
* * *
THE NATIONAL PSYCHE
LIFESTYLE
ECONOMY
POPULATION
MULTICULTURALISM
MEDIA
RELIGION
WOMEN IN JAPAN
ARTS
SPORT
* * *
THE NATIONAL PSYCHE
The uniqueness and peculiarity of ‘the Japanese’ is a favourite topic of both Western observers and the Japanese themselves. It’s worth starting any discussion of ‘the Japanese’ by noting that there is no such thing as ‘the Japanese’. Rather, there are 127 million individuals in Japan with their own unique characters, interests and habits. And despite popular stereotypes to the contrary, the Japanese are as varied as any people on earth. Just as importantly, Japanese people have more in common with the rest of humanity than they have differences.
Why then the pervasive images of the Japanese as inscrutable or even bizarre? These stereotypes are largely rooted in language: few Japanese are able to speak English as well as, say, your average Singaporean, Hong Kong Chinese or well-educated Indian, not to mention most Europeans. This difficulty with English is largely rooted in the country’s appalling English education system, and is compounded by a natural shyness, a perfectionist streak and the nature of the Japanese language itself, which contains fewer sounds than any other major world language (making pronunciation of other languages difficult). Thus, what appears to the casual observer to be a maddening inscrutability is more likely just an inability to communicate effectively. Outsiders who become fluent in Japanese discover a people whose thoughts and feelings are surprisingly – almost boringly – similar to those of folks in other developed nations.
Of course, myths of Japanese uniqueness are quite useful to certain elements of Japanese society, to whom Japanese uniqueness is evidence of Japanese racial superiority. Among this small minority are writers of a class of books known as Nihonjiron (studies of the Japanese people), which contain absurd claims about the Japanese (including the claim that Japanese brains work differently to other people’s, and even that Japanese have longer intestines than other races). Some of these beliefs have made headway in general Japanese society, but most well-educated Japanese pay little mind to these essentially racist and unscientific views.
All this said, the Japanese do have certain characteristics that reflect their unique history and interaction with their environment. The best way to understand how most modern Japanese people think is to look at these influences. First, Japan is an island nation. Second, until WWII, Japan was never conquered by an outside power, nor was it heavily influenced by Christian missionaries. Third, until the beginning of last century, the majority of Japanese lived in close-knit rural farming communities. Fourth, most of Japan is covered in steep mountains, so the few flat areas of the country are quite crowded – people literally live on top of each other. Finally, for almost all of its history, Japan has been a strictly hierarchical place, with something approximating a caste system during the Edo period.
All of this has produced a people who highly value group identity and smooth social harmony – in a tightly packed city or small farming village, there simply isn’t room for colourful individualism. One of the ways harmony is preserved is by forming consensus, and concealing personal opinions and true feelings. Thus, the free-flowing exchange of ideas, debates and even heated arguments that one expects in the West are far less common in Japan. This reticence about sharing innermost thoughts perhaps contributes to the Western image of the Japanese as mysterious.
The Japanese tendency to put social harmony above individual expression is only strengthened