Paradoxes in Japanese Culture

Hi again, everyone! Today, I want to talk about some paradoxical parts of Japanese culture I found very hard to understand at first. Some of them have clarified themselves, while others still don't make very much sense to me. Read and see what you can take away from them!


Public Nudity:

As we all know, one part of Japanese culture that is very foreign to modern Western culture is public bathing. In the olden days, men and women used to bathe together in the same bathhouse or hot spring, and nudity in public was no big deal. If you want to get the full experience of a Japanese お風呂 bath, expect to see lots of buck-naked Japanese people.

Today, however, nudity in public is much more frowned upon. Modesty about public nudity was brought to Japan along with European trade and Western influence. Our culture was the one that indoctrinated them into thinking that being seen naked is wrong, and people began to feel ashamed of it. Mixed bathing has all but disappeared, so almost all baths are gender segregated. I'm lucky to have a mixed-bathing onsen nearby, but women hardly frequent these types of places anyways.

Outside the bathhouse, public nudity is strictly regulated. By law, genitalia aren't even allowed to be shown on any print or video media (even cartoon genitalia!). Amazing, isn't it, how you can't look at private parts on paper, but you have to wade through a sea of them just to take a simple bath! Public bathing has remained a part of the culture for the most part, but the rest is the effect of a clash between Eastern and Western culture.


Professionalism:

The Japanese workplace is an uptight environment. There is a distinct ladder-like hierarchy based on age or seniority, and underlings must treat their seniors with the utmost respect. This is reflected by use of respectful speech, length/depth/frequency of bowing, and the general way people carry themselves. Workers are expected to arrive early, work hard constantly, do everything their superiors want, and leave work late. Many of the teachers I work with arrive at school at around 7:30 am and leave work after 8:00 pm. You can imagine that their diet and health are quite poor because of this.

People are expected to carry themselves in a professional manner. Here, they call it まじめ, or majime. People need to be serious about their work, and be good role models to their underlings. For example, government workers (like me) are held to a higher standard than other regular folk. If we are caught committing petty crimes, like jaywalking or traffic violations, students and other teachers will call us out at work. If the law gets involved, you must write a personal apology to the mayor. Lost your bus card? Letter to the mayor. Wallet got stolen? Letter to the mayor. Parking ticket? Letter to the mayor.

But of course, people are not always expected to be majime. Every so often, there are office parties called enkai. These are considered "work" and everyone is expected to go, and if you are late, your boss will call you and ask where you are. But, once you are there, you are expected to drink copious amounts of alcohol and get absolutely inebriated. People laugh and sing, and do stupid shit. If you can't get drunk enough at the party, there is usually an after party, called a nijikai, where you can deal your liver some final blows. I've heard of an office party hero who found a conch and ran around blowing it in people's faces. Of course, the next day at work, he was back to the usual majime.

Schools reflect the professionalism of the workplace. In school, students need to be proper and behaved. They have uniforms that must be neat and tidy, and they even have an official way to arrange their school lunch on their trays! But once school is over, the kids become wild and crazy animals as usual. Teachers are strict and scary when they're in the halls or in class, but they become friendly and lighthearted when in the teacher's room or at office parties. The idea that there is a time and place for everything is called "being able to read the atmosphere", or 空気を読める kuuki wo yomeru. People who have trouble understanding their social position are called "KY's", or kuuki yomenai for "can't read the atmosphere". The ability to read and understand your social environment underlies the many Japanese paradoxes.


Politeness:

When asked what they think of Japanese people, most people I've met say, "They're the nicest and most polite people I've ever met!" Sure, Japanese people are polite. It's a custom to be polite to people you've just met, guests in your home, or people of seniority. Most tourists get the impression that all Japanese people are polite all the time.

Of course, like everything else, there is a time and place for everything. People who work in the service industry are always polite. They always use extreme amounts of polite speech, and bow at customers constantly. They also apologize and thank customers for every little thing. This politeness can get pretty annoying and disgusting after a while, because you know it's entirely fake.

People who are served by people in the service industry are anything but polite. While other people are serving or helping them, they tend to simply ignore what's going on. When exiting a bus, the driver will thank the passengers, while the passengers silently throw their fare into the money machine and avoid eye contact. When an old man or lady is struggling to get up the bus steps, people avert their eyes and refuse to go help. I've had to personally lift 2 old ladies into the bus because nobody else bothered to. Young people choose to stay seated while old people stand. I've stood to let an old man sit in my place, causing a great commotion in the bus as the high school kids started feeling guilty and let the old people take their spots.

People in the grocery store are the same; they silently pay for their groceries and walk away from the cashier without another word. People on the street do their best to avoid other pedestrians and prevent a conversation. There's a stifling "leave me alone" atmosphere.

Politeness is part of Japanese culture, but politeness is situational. If you are polite when you're not supposed to be, people will find it strange. I was talking to some of the neighbors' kids, and they made fun of how I used keigo. Keigo is usually used to people of equal or slightly higher rank, so they found it extremely strange for me to use it when talking to kids. I had to explain to them that English doesn't have polite speech, and that keigo is the same as any other form of speech to me. They didn't seem to understand, and I doubt they ever will. That's just the way Japanese culture is.


Punctuality:

Most people in the world believe that Japan is obsessed with punctuality. Essentially, this is true. Employers expect their workers to get to work early. Around here, they say, "Early is on time, and on time is late. If you're late, you're REALLY late." Trains are expected to be on time to the second, and train companies make repeated intercom announcements to apologize if a train will be even slightly late. Train companies in Tokyo will even hand out apology slips to salarymen in the case of a late train so they have an excuse for being late to work.

That being said, there are many situations where tardiness is viewed as shikatanai, or "it can't be helped". I can't even count the number of times the office didn't really care when I was late to work because of a late bus. So the bus was late? Shikatanai. I've been on highway buses that arrived 2.5 hours later than expected. What does the driver tell you? Shikatanai. Trains late? Catastrophe. Buses late? Meh oh well. I've even known another teacher who drove his car into a snowy ditch, making it impossible for him to go to school the next day. When he called his head teacher at school, the reply was merely, "shikatanai".

Also, punctuality is only important if it's official business. If you're going to work, or some sort of official event, you'd better be there 15-30 minutes early. If you're just going out to hang out with a friend, it's fine to be as late as you want. Just make sure to text them beforehand, and they won't care much. Hell, they were probably running late also.


Certifications:

Japan has a testing-based society. If you want to do anything, you must first be heavily tested on it to make sure you are qualified. If you want to drive, teach, cut hair, go to high school/college, or do anything really, you're going to need a certification for it. It's a good safe way to make sure everybody knows what they're doing.

This all seems normal, but there is a heavy unbalance in the system. The testing process is extremely rigorous. As I mentioned before, the certification courses for getting a driver's license cost upwards of $3000 and has weeks of classroom and closed-course practice. If you want to cut hair, you need to get two licenses! One is for cutting hair with scissors, and the other is for cutting hair with clippers. If you've only got one, it's illegal to cut someone else's hair with the other method (for money).

Even though the testing process is rigorous, they are hardly ever realistic. Those who learn to drive usually end up with their licenses before they've even had a chance to drive on a real road with traffic. Closed-course driving that's expected for the test is nothing like real driving, so there are many "paper drivers", who own drivers licenses but are too terrified to drive for the first time. People who do end up driving may end up driving dangerously, like many of the people I've seen. I've nearly slammed into a genius making a slow 3-point turn in the middle of an unlit highway at night!

School entrance exams test students on volumes of trivial knowledge, so anyone with half a brain and a hard-drive embedded in their skull can get into the top college (which guarantees them a high-paying executive position in the future). Teaching licenses are handed out like candy to anyone who can prove proficiency in their chosen subject without regard to teaching ability. Some English teachers still teach exclusively with a "read and repeat this passage, and study grammar and vocab on your own" style.

The reason Japan has such a rigorous testing-based society is because the economy is somewhat dependent on it. Test preparation is a noticeable part of the economy, and lots of people make their living on it. Imagine if there weren't any more driving schools, eikaiwa, tutoring centers, cram schools, or certification courses! That's tens of thousands of people out of work! The testing is there to make sure these people will continue to have work, while the results of post-certification hardly matter at all. Thus, there is an epidemic of people who are certified, but suck at what they do. Japan as a country is not alone in this aspect, but the effects are somewhat highlighted compared to other places.


Environmentalism:

If you've ever watched any of Miyazaki's films or seen any traditional Japanese art, Japan prides itself on being conscious of the environment. They take pride in their mountains, forests, streams, and natural hot springs. During the spring and fall, sakura blossom and fall foliage viewing are past-times that everyone takes part in, not just the nature lovers. They love wooden buildings, tatami floors, gardens with flowing water, and bonsai trees. Japan boasts that they have 4 unique seasons, and some people even believe that Japan is the only place in the world with 4 real seasons. Garbage is meticulously separated and sorted, and unneeded lighting is shut off to reduce energy consumption, even if it creates a safety hazard (the stairwells at my office are always completely dark, and I've stumbled down them more than a few times).

Unfortunately, Japan doesn't have as mutual a relationship with nature as they like to believe. Nearly all of Japan has been developed, so it's hard to find a piece of flat ground that doesn't have buildings or farmland on it. I've been to arguably the most rural place (Yagen Valley on the Shimokita peninsula) on Japan's main island, and it's surrounded within 30 km by small city zones. The land of Japan has been pillaged and exploited more than any other landmass on earth.

Not only this, but they've expanded their influence into the sea. Japan has a major overfishing problem, and Greenpeace is always targeting Japan for its whaling practices. Besides taking too much out of the sea, Japanese factories are also dumping stuff into it. Mercury poisoning was internationally famous in Minamata, Japan, where it was originally called "Minamata disease". There were big problems with pollution a few decades ago because the ministry of industrial development, too busy trying to increase their industrial strength and position as a world exporting power, largely ignored pollution control. Pollution control can be expensive, and it's difficult for businesses to flourish when they're burdened by unnecessary expenses. Japanese people can pretend that they are friendly with mother nature, but that is entirely untrue.


That's all for this time! Next time, I'll be talking about my Golden Week travels and experiences. See you then!