Hello, my name is Nimura

Before starting, I like to take an advance bail that this blog post is a personal one.

Yesterday my colleagues were deeply thinking how to write my name in Japanese. Anything foreign including the names, objects etc are written in Katakana script. Thus it is easy to identify by seeing the Katakana script that the thing or person is an outsider to Japan. My first name: Jayaprakash itself is little longer for Japanese people and after coming to Japan, the name is cut short to Jaya. As Japanese people add san to every name, they call me Jaya-san. In fact, Jaya alone is female name in India. When the colleagues told their desire to call Jaya-san, I did not show any hesitation. After all, what is in a name…..a rose is a rose…..

Things and people are divided broadly as Japanese and non-Japanese. This classification makes the things easier for Japanese people to understand things better and differentiate. The end purpose is not yet known to me. Hiragana and Kanji are used for Japanese things. Japanese names are written in Kanji.

Yesterday, one of the new systems required all the names to be entered in Kanji. It was necessary to put my name in Kanji. After much discussion, translation of my names in to English and then to Japanese they came with some suggestions. In India, names have meaning. Hindu names are based on Sanskrit language and each name has one meaning. For example, my first name Jayaprakash is a combination of two Sanskrit words Jaya and Prakash. Jaya means success and Prakash means light. The total meaning is some thing like ‘Light of success’

Converting the ‘Light of success in to Japanese Kanji, my name will be 成功光 (success light). There is no Japanese name like this and the colleagues told it is not a good name in Japanese language. Family names are used in Japan and they asked me the meaning of my family name in English. My family name in my mother tongue is Kottampilly. Some of the old Malayalam-Tamil meaning of Kottam in English is ‘New’. Pilli stands for Village. Modern Malayalam language and many of the new generation Keralites do not know these meanings. This Kottampilli has many variations in the southern states of India. Some of the people living in the border areas of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka have family names like Kottapilli, Kottampilli, Kottampally, Kottapalli etc. While I was in Riyadh, one of my friend from Andhra Pradesh and another friend from Karnataka has same family name as Kottampilli. Interestingly according to them also, the regional versions of Kottam is New and Pally is village.

Recollecting the old Riyadh friends, I translated my family name as ‘New village’ The new village in Japanese language is ‘Atarashi Mura’. 新しい村. Japanese people do not use Hiragana while writing names. They just take 新 from新しい and村 to make the name新村. This is pronounced as ‘NIMURA’ in Japanese.

Now, I got a Japanese name – Nimura-san. 新村

Interesting experience! Japanese names have their origin in the nature. The mountain, river, village, bridge, chopsticks, bell ring, trees etc are the major inspirations for Japanese names. If translated to English, some of the Japanese names can be read as Blue tree (Aoki), Middle Field (Nakada), Middle river (Nakagawa), Upper field (Ueda), Tree village (Kimura), Paddy village (Tamura), Middle village (Nakamura) etc.

Similar naming system has been followed in India too since ancient time. Our family names also bear some meaning in the old language, which many new generation people can not recognize. Sanskrit names are meaningful, but recently in the name of fashion, baby names are twisted and it is hard to find any meaning in any of the existing language. A great percentage of population still follows the traditional way of putting names in India too.

The names taken from natural things show the civilization’s affiliation with the nature. It is a kind of union achieved in the society by calling human beings the names of natural things. The preservation and maintenance of nature comes from within. People carry the mountains, villages, trees, animals and rivers wherever they go, while they sleep, wake-up, eat and go to school and always with them! This is the ultimate example harmony of human societies and nature!

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.

Japanese, Indian and English Number systems

Japanese numbering system and method to denote and name higher count figures are different from English number system. Initially it was a bit difficult to get an idea of amount of figures while discussing with Japanese colleagues. International business figures are almost always in millions or billions. Japanese people have the same problem to understand when the figures are in millions and billions.

The Japanese system for numbers up to thousand uses similar system with that of the western system of numbering. For numbers up to thousand, in India also we use a similar system. Similar system means, we have different names to denote 100 and 1000. Generally we do not use any separate name for 10,000. It is just ‘das hazar’ in Hindi as ten thousand in English.

Before we start comparing the differences in dealing with higher numbers, it will be worth to recall the smaller count numbers in Japanese, English and Hindi.

Numbers                English                  Japanese                  Hindi

1                             One                          Ichi                            Ek

2                             Two                          Ni                             Do

3                             Three                        San                           Teen

4                             Four                         Yon/Shi                     Char

5                             Five                          Go                             Paanch

6                             Six                            Roku                         Che

7                             Seven                       Nana                         Saath

8                             Eight                         Hachi                        Aath

9                             Nine                         Kyu/Ku                     Nau

10                           Ten                           Ju                              Das

20                           Twenty                     Ni ju                          Bees

30                           Thirty                        San ju                        Tees

40                           Forty                        Yon ju                        Chalees

100                        One Hundred             Hyaku                        Ek sau

1000                      Thousand                   Sen                            Hazar

10,000                   Ten thousand              Man                          Das Hazar

100,000                 Hundred thousand      Ju man                       Lakh

1,000,000              One million                 Hyaku man                Das Lakh

10,000,000            Ten million                  Sen man                    Crore

100,000,000          One hundred million    Oku                           Das crore

1,000,000,000       One Billion                  Ju Oku                      Arab

Here, I wrote up to one billion only. One trillion, which is one thousand billions, is called Cho 兆 in Japanese and ten kharab in Indian system. Ancient Indian astrologers used big numbers to calculate the distance of stars and hence Indian numbering systems have names to denote really big numbers like one duodecillion, which is 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000. In Indian numbering system this is called Adant Singhar. It is not a surprise to use such big numbers for calculation while dealing with the universe.

In Japanese numbering system, ‘man 万’ is used to denote ten thousand. From ten thousand onwards Japanese people use ‘man’. Then Ichi man is 10,000, ni man is 20,000, san man is 30,000 and so on. The western system use ten thousand for 10,000, twenty thousand for 20,000 while the Indian (Hindi) system use a system similar to English like Bees hazar for 20,000 and Tees hazar for 30,000 etc. Up to one hundred thousand Indian and English systems are different. In India we use One lakh for one hundred thousand, which is ju man in Japanese.

Lakh and Crore are commonly used in India for business, while in Japan man and Oku 億 are used, in English Million and Billion are used. For me, the translation of figures from Indian to English and then to Japanese system of numbering takes much time to get an image when we discuss Ni hyaku man yen or Oku yen. Schools in India also teache Indian way of counting and denoting the numbers and the brain is forged to imagine the figures in terms of Lakhs and Crores.

With the globalization of the businesses in India, use of million and billion are quite common and it takes less time to translate the figures in mind to our lakhs and crores. It takes time to accommodate with new system used to deal with numbers. Years of building up of images and mental calculation based on one system can not be replaced totally with another system. Computer will make the things easy to convert the It is easy now to remember das lakh is one million and sau crore is one billion. The two process conversion of numbers from Indian to English and then to Japanese is many times a test for brain.

The other side of the story is the complaint from Japanese colleagues that the million and billions are too difficult for them!

Indian Embassy, Radhabinod Pal and a cultural shock

Mr. Grant was on a short trip to Japan, when I met him near Kudanshita station. I was on my way to Indian Embassy to get the application form for renewal of passport. A tourist from Britain, Grant was curious to hear my opinion about Japan and more on Japanese attitude towards foreigners. Interestingly, this is one of the snooping topics many of the foreign travelers in Japan trying to get answered from foreigners living in Japan. Grant did not hesitate to tell his intention to know Japanese attitude towards foreigners.

The subject of talk was particularly important considering the place of our meeting. There were much in the western and East Asian press connected with Yasukuni shrine in the past, but it is quite natural for Indian people to support Japan’s stand during World War II. As the post-war trial judge Mr. Radhabinod Pal mentioned, victors decide what is wrong and what is right. It is a controversial issue. Opinion polls conducted by various newspapers and other media across India reveals that Japan is the most admired nation in India even today. It is common that school history teachers in India used to tell inspiring facts and incidents of Japan's growth as a powerful nation in Asia. Japan has been a source of inspiration for many young Indian politicians and industrialists. After all, Japan helped Indian freedom fighter S.C Bose to make INA and fight against the British East India company rule in India. Radhabinod Pal has done the justice to millions Indians too through the dissent notes and observations.

While walking towards Indian Embassy, I remembered Justice Radhabinod Pal and his reasons. Each cause could be justified with the theory of relativity. The justice is relative, the crime is relative, the punishment is relative and the whole social structure and laws are relative. Moral values are relative. When the Observer and the observed are two different identities, there exists a line of difference. That difference will bring conflict and conflict will generate injustice. The justice or injustice depends on the perception of the observer. Moreover, the judgment is influenced by the observer’s attitude.

There are three entities in the process of observation - The observer, the medium for observation and the observed. The inference is affected by the relative positioning of the three entities. The difference creates such a division between the observer and the observed. The difference between the observer and the observed is the source of conflicts and injustice. If there is no difference, the observer and the observed becomes one. This is the reason Mr. Pal is revered in Japan and there is a monument dedicated to him that stands on the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine.

Grant was also curious to know the cultural shock I might have faced in Japan. Cultural shock is a much debated subject in Japan among foreigners. Periods of cultural shock are a necessary phase of any expatriate’s life. The perception and excitement the expatriate bear with while entering to a foreign country have great influence on magnitude of cultural shock. As every expatriate may pass through some form of cultural shock during the expatriate life I also have undergone a mild cultural shock. It was not severe to totally obliterate the good feelings.

If the host culture is extremely different from ours, we may psychologically disorient for a period of time. For some people it takes more time. Very few people, unable to cop with the differences, decide to put an end to the expatriate life. The saddest part of the cultural shock is that during many of the life situations, the expatriate may feel as if they are children, a kind of helplessness, as if we are thrown out from our mother's lap. Some feels loss of face. Frankly, I did share the feelings to Grant the difficulties of carrying a different head in public places! It is a strange feeling while riding a subway train or walking on the roads. A different object among things of uniformity! It is easy to get noticed in the crowd. Foreigners from countries other than some of the East Asian countries have different looks. Grant has been carrying his head through many cities and villages, but he agreed the psychology of a visitor is different from the psychology of an expatriate.

If the host country is hostile, expatriates will feel more uneasiness. In this case foreigners living in Japan are lucky that Japanese people are not hostile. Japanese people are warm and there is a considerable percentage of philanthropists in Japanese society.

After around thirty minutes of sharing on history, justice and culture shock, we bid adieu. Walking back to the Exit-2 of the Kudanshita station after completing the work at Indian Embassy, images of S.C Bose and his marching soldiers flashed in the memory.

Tail-Post: Taking the exit-2 at Kudanshita Toei Shinjuku line/Tozai line is one of the shortest routes to reach Indian Embassy at Tokyo. Embassy is called Taishikan in Japanese language and the kanji is 大使館.

International Military Tribunal for the Far East: Dissentient judgment

Lectures on universal declaration of human rights,