There is an obvious mystery here: Why do the Japanese endure what
may be the lowest standard of living of any industrialized nation, and
certainly a royal screwing on retirement and savings benefits? It is
difficult to imagine the American or any European society enduring what
the Japanese take with equanimity. In this respect, there is something
radically different in the Japanese psychology, something that makes
their behavior both different and incomprehensible to their Western
counterparts.
It must be understood that Japan is the only industrialized country
in the world that had never experienced a mass uprising. France, England,
the United States had all undergone revolutions or upheavals that
shattered the old aristocracy. Japan, on the other hand, experienced its
industrial revolution as a conscious decision of its own aristocracy;
indeed, industrialism arrived in Japan via the aristocracy. This meant
that Japan is the only industrial society in which the psychology of
feudalism remains in place. The idea of the importance of the group, of
subordinating ego to the group, of accepting one's fate as part of the
group, survived in Japan.
The willingness of Japanese workers to accept long hours, miserable
retirement, and low interest rates without protest is thus no more
surprising than the serf's willingness to endure his misery. He expected,
in return, a stable existence, a community in which to live, and
recognition of one's achievements with that community. So does the
Japanese worker and salaryman.
Japan is a country trapped in a paradox. One of the most insular
and even parochial countries in the world, the entire structure of its
economy, both its imports and exports, makes it dependent on other
countries. Japan's insularity rests on geography: Only China and Korea
are near enough to influence events in Japan, but the waters separating
them are so treacherous that Japan has never been successfully invaded.
Hence the Japanese remain one of the most homogeneous people in the
world; a single ethnic stock that has bred true for centuries--a fact the
Japanese people note with pride.
Being so isolated, Japan turned inward and became one of the most
insular people in the world, both culturally and genetically. On the
whole, the Japanese preferred this; yet from the moment they
industrialized, they ceased being insular. The very process made them
dependent on other countries for markets and resources, and this
dependency made them insecure. Having little experience with other
nations and little time to learn, the Japanese adjusted with a clumsiness
that caused much pain and gave little solace. A charming country when
defeated, Japan has difficulty in knowing how to be gracious in victory,
and knows even less how to live with equals.
The United States is the absolute opposite of Japan in this regard.
Where Japan is homogenous, the United States is heterogenous. We are, by
design, a nation of immigrants, who are expected and encouraged to retain
their own unique identity even as they become Americans. America's very
existence is cosmopolitan, and its practice of foreign policy is uniquely
universal. Our relations with any nation in the world are conditioned by
the fact that some ethnic group originated, or had an affinity, there.
The paradox, of course, is that the United States--although far more
self-sufficient than Japan--is to its very soul a nation comprised of
other nations, incapable of avoiding psychological involvement in the
world.
It is Japan's deepest wish to be able to return to the splendor of
pre-modern isolation--to be left alone and free from pollution. Japan,
being in many ways an impoverished nation (such as its lack of natural
resources), is forced into profoundly uncomfortable international
activities. It must sell to nations it does not genuinely understand and
does not particularly admire, and must buy from other nations the
resources it needs to produce goods. In 1941 this forced Japan into a war
it did not want, and resulted in the deepest of humiliations. It imported
Chinese Buddhism and European industrialism; it adopted American
democracy--all under the pressure of reality. And none of this changed
Japan's inclination to insularity.
So we can see the differences in the very international outlook of
these two countries, neither seeing nor experiencing the world as others
do. For an American, filled with the wealth of an entire continent, life
is full of possibilities, and failure merely an invitation to try again,
to motivate, to learn. The American saying "If at first you don't
succeed, try, try again" could not be expressed in almost any other
culture; but in Japan, it is inconceivable. The tightrope Japan walks on
does not allow for failure. The United States lost the war in Vietnam,
was forced our of Iran, but none of it mattered. We could always try
again until we succeeded.
Japan's one error at Pearl Harbor--that it did not destroy the
shore facilities--led to national catastrophe. The wide-open
possibilities of America leads to sloppiness, which the Japanese
incorrectly interpret as decadence. They are merely margins for error.
The narrow poverty of Japan leads to obsessive care in order to avoid a
single error, and Americans interpret this as neurotic compulsion.
Tags:
45 years,
allies,
basic assumption,
businessmen,
circumstances,
clash,
Cold War,
corporations,
hatred,
history,
Japan,
Japanese,
life business,
okinawa,
outbreak,
pacifists,
prosperity,
radicals,
sages,
springtime,
War
