Are the wheels coming off Japan’s traditionally organized social structure?

Recently one of the Japanese friends, who had visited major Indian cities for business purpose, commented on the economical developments happening in India. It was good to hear that a country like India with an explosive population makes remarkable achievements in industrial growth. He was eager to tell me the energy and confidence he could observe in young entrepreneurs and business executives during his interaction with them.

That must be true. The young educated generation in India is ambitious to reach new heights and prove their abilities. Drawing encouragement from the proven success of Japan and other developed countries, the young generation is motivated to add new dimension to the traditionally stained image of their country. I told my friend that the recent economical developments are concentrated in the industry only. There might be a low penetration of growth to the basic necessities too, but the growth is highly not organized or distributed in India. The poverty rate is much higher and alarming in India. The human rights violations, child labor, aggression towards women, malnutrition, infant deaths, and poverty to mention a few things that UN has put India on the top of their list underrate the recent economical growth.

As an Indian, it is a proud to hear that our country is growing. It is a relief and gives hope to those downtrodden millions of human beings, termed as ‘cattle’ by her wealthy class. Even the right to education bill proposed by the central government in India is questioned by some vested interest groups in the name of funds and basic infrastructure. They don’t understand that the idea of right to education is important to feed into the social structure, so that the administration, bureaucrats, social organization will strive to meet the requirement. That attempt is enough in a society to bring success. Years of suppression, caste and class based discrimination, disparities etc, have reinforced optimism in political brains too in India. India needs more enthusiastic young brains to overcome those optimistic blocks in the political front and move forward.

On the other hand, Japan’s economical growth and social structure has appeared as a model for me. During discussions, I used to point out my observations that Japan does not need any communist parties to bring socialism in to the society. The governments had done their job well to bring justice to all the citizens in Japan. I don’t claim that I have not seen anybody sleeping on the street. Yes, I have seen homeless people twice or thrice while walking with friends in the night through the busy Tokyo streets. For me and friends the scene was a strange experience in Tokyo. It is quite common in India or any other developing country.

Economy matters. If the country and people are rich and have enough money to satisfy the basic necessities, the money can be spent for luxury. Then the social life becomes a celebration. In developing countries, corruption in bureaucracy and political system has their roots in the poor salary structure. In Japan, as far as my experience goes, a good percentage of the population can afford to live with many luxury things in life.

Socialism is interwoven in the society. One of the reasons for this socialistic mentality among Japanese people as told by friends is the feeling of ‘unique race’. Japan, though possess similarities with the neighboring East Asian countries, has many unique things to make it separate from others. The almost homogenous society had made the things easier for the administration and law to implement, organize and interwove socialistic threads into the society. That was the efforts of past generations in Japan and the result is today’s Japan as a model state that other nations can learn.

I have always heard stories of loyalty, truthfulness and righteousness from foreigners living in Japan when they tell their real life experiences of losing money and valuables. One friend forgot his bag including passport, money and other valuables in a taxi, in which he came from Narita airport on his first day to Japan. He did approach the nearby police station to report. Following the instruction from the police, he went to the station the next day and to his surprise the police handed over his bag with all the valuables inside intact. Another friend from Singapore forgot to take change for 10,000 Yen from the vending machine. When he realized this loss on the next day, he made a hopeless attempt to check at the vending machine to get the change that was approx. 9200 Yen. After searching at the vicinity of the vending machine, he approached the nearby shop and explained his loss. To his surprise, they asked him what is the exact amount and time he lost the money. When he told both time and exact amount, they handed over him the money!

Yes, these have been what I used to hear from foreign friends, but recently, started hearing suddenly about taking care while riding crowded trains and do shopping etc. Some of the people started losing their money. The money won’t disappear by itself. It happens when the wheels coming off. The society could be symbolized to a vehicle. When the economy shudders, it is hard to keep the wheels in place.

Thoughts on Japan, society and Japanese people

Walking down the street, we had an interesting discussion with us. How came the Japanese so different from other East Asians? Discussed in many social forums may be thousands of times by veterans, these topics are still alive, but I particularly had nothing new to add to my opinion. Choi bun-san had something new to tell me.

Being from Korea, he knows well that the physical difference between most of the East Asians and Japanese is almost zero, especially with the northern Chinese and Koreans. The looks are similar, but when he says the attitude and behavior is different I had to agree. How can I, better than him be able to differentiate similar looking people. The race is same, the physical appearances are same, but there are still elements that separate Japanese people from others.

The culture, the language, the behavior, the response towards events etc are different. This does not mean that Japanese people are free from all kinds of bad manners or they are extra ordinarily obedient or disciplined. When I say from my own experience that Japan is clean, people are disciplined, law obedient, well-mannered, free from social crimes, I never mean that Japanese society is one hundred percent free from all kinds of dirt, indiscipline, law breakings, ill-manners, anti-social activities etc.

There may be bad people in Japan as it is with any society. There are dirty things, there are unclean areas, there are violations of law and rules, there are aggression in the public places, there are murders, rape, child abuse, there are drunken people shouting in public places, hundreds of cases of anti-social activities reported from Japan and thus goes the list of all bad things in society just the same way like in any other society. Japanese people are not extra-ordinary people in the sense that they are just like the same kind of human race as is with any other human population. Japanese people are extra-ordinary in their attitude to eliminate or free themselves from many of the evils in our societies. That attitude makes the difference. That attitude of Japanese people reflects in their whole education system and social fabric.

It is just that! But this is the great thing with any human population. The attitude and nature of majority of Japanese people are warm, welcome, pleasant and optimistic towards others and their own life. Is it not the same with other east Asians? Are they not warm and pleasant? Of course, Yes. They are also good and their societies are also warm. Just the percent of that elevated class of human beings are more in Japan. This makes the difference and projects Japan in a well frame to the rest of the world.

Choi bun-san had his own versions to justify his observations. I have very few opportunities to know more deep about the real Japanese psyche.

Who is bad and who is right? How can we judge people without any prejudice? When we make standards for measuring or observing or judging other characters, always those standards will be affected by our own views. Then those standards cease to be neutral. In fact, there may not be any neutral standards by which we can measure human beings and their behavior. We are not better judges of anybody.

It is heavily raining outside as I started recollecting the conversations with Choi bun-san. Today’s News paper head lines carry the news of war planes reached from America to Japan.

Japanese society has been peaceful and quiet for many years. The life here is also peaceful and calm. Japanese society is well taught to respect each other and respect strangers. The Bushido culture teaches to respect the enemy too. Historical evidences shows the fighting communities within Japan respected each other in war.

Napoleon Bonaparte, after capturing Russia, decided to return back without touching China. The reason he told to his military was that it is a sleeping monster. Sleeping does not mean weakness. Japan is not weak only because Japanese people love peace.

Japanese politeness and discipline - How to distinguish Japanese people from other East Asians?

It was start of a debate when I declared that I can distinguish a Japanese person from other far east Asians. Probably I was little excited and exaggerated. But I had enough reasons to argue with my friends. The topic I started was interesting to many friends since they were from East Asian countries.

They wanted to know how I can differentiate Japanese people from other East Asian people. In fact, I used to observe the behavior pattern of Japanese people in public and their manners. The attitude of Japanese people to others, especially to people from India is totally different from the attitude of other East Asians towards Indian people. There is a great extent of positive patterns when Japanese people interact with Indians.

By observing East Asian people, I could guess to almost nearly accurately the country of east Asian people. I agree that it is difficult to distinguish Japanese and South Koreans, North Chinese and some Thai people. But most of the time, the behavior pattern helped me to differentiate other East Asians from Japanese.

One of the major characteristics with Japanese public behavior is Discipline. This is what I like to appreciate the whole system of bringing up a generation in Japan. Japanese people and education system has a vision to build future generation and they are well aware of the impacts of discipline in the society.

The robust and healthy Japanese society has been practicing an admirable system of discipline for many decades. History says the modern Japan became a self disciplined society from the time of Edo. I am not a scholar to comment on this. But I can say from my observation of Japanese people for the past one year that Japanese people are different.

There may be an argument when Japanese people say that they are a different human race. The secluded island culture for many centuries has resulted in a kind of oneness among Japanese people and similar cultural proximity among different regions of Japan. This may be the reason for Japanese people thinking that their race is different. By race they mean only the society, I believe.

Even though other East Asians looks like Japanese, they fail to behave like Japanese. In that sense, Japanese culture is different from other East Asian cultures though it is affected. The attitude of majority of people makes the society proud. In that sense Japan has got all to proud of her people. The aligned and programmed nature of behavior of Japanese people makes the things simple in every walk of life.

Airport is the most noticeable place for Japanese politeness. The moment I landed in Hong Kong Airport, I could experience the difference between Japanese and other East Asians, though they look same. The careless and arrogant nature of approach and attitude is missing in Japan Airports. Instead, people are warm and polite. They wish politely every traveler pass through. That is amazing. There are guides with smiling face in Tokyo Airport for any kind of help. Such a convenient and pleasant Airport I have never seen anywhere. Malaysian Airport is another place which reinforced my observation that Japanese people are different from other East Asians in behavior. The same arrogant nature as in Hong Kong I could watch in Kula lumpur airport also.

Why Japan is different? And who told them to behave good to strangers? Why most people at Hong Kong and Malaysia are arrogant?

The answer is in the culture. The cultural background makes the difference. Japan is a country with full fledged development. That development is not limited to the technological field, Japanese people are also developed much higher than other East Asians. That is the reason we miss to experience the politeness and pleasant experiences at Malaysia and other East Asian countries. I have no experience with Korea, but my interaction with Korean people says, they are also warm like Japanese.

Japan has an edge over others with their politeness, discipline and pleasant attitude. That makes life and society beautiful.