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4 People Lecture Notes ?/span>2001 by Mineharu Nakayama

4.1. Diversity, Change, and The Group

Keywords: "face" (or "kao"), gakubatsu, kone, ie, oyabun vs. kobun, uchi vs. soto, The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Banged Down., haragei or "the art of the belly", go-between, tatemae vs. honne, five basic Chinese relationships, yang vs yin, Shame Culture, on and amae, less of a sense of sin, enryo

different perception of "Japan"

the descendants of the delicate and sensitive courtiers and ladies of The Tale of Genji

or of medieval Zen artists

or of the gentle folk who so attracted Lafcadio Hearn in the 19th century

of the arrogant, punctilious, rule-bound samurai of Tokugawa times

or militarists

or single-minded fanaticism - "economic animals"

Japan does not have a simple uniform society - great variations in attitudes

vertical society or the sense of dependence in human relations - distortion of the society

Norms keep changing - too fast changing to fit into any tight, neat model

19th c - openness about exposing the human body - now considered prudish

most part - the same direction as the US - very bold to very timid or from wildly ambitious to extremely passive

Maintaining "face" - or "kao"

Group affiliations - very important, but the Japanese tend to emphasize these even beyond realty

Examples: habatsu - personal factional alignments; gakubatsu/academic clique - family interrelationships, university provenance; kone - connections

the balance between group and individual is in flux in Japan

individual rights - in 1889 constitution but strictly limited - 1947 constitution - clearly defined and unrestricted individual rights

A group player is obviously appreciated more than a solo star and team spirit more than individual ambition.

The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Banged Down.

Cooperativeness, reasonableness, and understanding of others are the virtues most admired, not personal drive, forcefulness, and individual self-assertion.

Key value - harmony - subtle process of mutual understanding (almost by intuition- no clear cut decisions) - consensus is the goal (avoid open confrontations) - much is suggested by indirection or vague implication - haragei or "the art of the belly" (inference or nonverbal means)

Oyabun vs. Kobun; sempai vs. kohai - behavior in group drinking

IE - the stem family system - main and subordinate branch families under the authority....never emphasized ancestor worship - symbolizing continuity of the family

eldest son - inherit the farm or business - live with children - inadequate retirement pay and social security benefits - dependent on children's support

Parental authority is stronger and family ties on the whole are closer

America/Japan - difference more of degree toward smaller units and less binding ties

UCHI vs. SOTO

Mura "village"/ Buraku "hamlet"

A job - not merely a contractual arrangement for pay but -identification with a larger entity - sense of security, pride in and loyalty to the firm

- the identification of the worker with his work group has had a profound influence on how Japanese business and the economy operates.

Chamber of Commerce for small shops

Federation of Economic Organization or Keidanren for big companies

Nookyoo or JA - agricultural cooperative

PTA

Organized new religion e.g., Soka Gakkai

Japanese style of negotiation can be confusing and maddening - American way - blunt and threatening to them (bargaining purpose - opening gambit)

use go-betweens (e.g., marriage)

skills in cooperative group living

consensus decisions achieved by negotiation and compromise - tend to avoid the losses of open conflict - build up a solidarity

Japanese vs. American leadership

Westerners - little rough, unpredictable, and immature in their frankness and ready display of emotions

voices are rarely raised - but actually the Japanese are deeply emotional, strictly hide their emotions as much as possible

no Japanese make common cause with outsiders against their fellow Japanese for their own personal gain - not so any longer

Society in which people see themselves primarily as members of groups, specific intragroup and intergroup relationships may reasonably take precedence over universal principles - more relativistic or situational

Tatemae (general principle) vs. Honne (a person's own internal motivations)

- No clear set of words for the dichotomy between universal principles and actions accommodated to particular group relations

- greater emphasis on particularistic relations and relativistic judgments

Examples from Kato (2000) - What would you say if you were Lisa or Ken below?

Situation 1: Lisa is a hard-working female designer. She has stayed up all night at the office to help her colleague Tim with his project. She hasn't neglected the job her supervisor asked to do, but the supervisor, who dislikes Tim, is jealous.

Supervisor: You really ought to finish the job I asked you to do first.

Lisa: ?

Situation 2: Ken has been working at an advertisement company, but he is laid off as a result of restructuring. A proud man, Ken was shocked and went out drinking with his friends until late. The next morning he looks miserable with hangover, and his sister is worried.

Sister: Why do you drink till you are sick?

Ken: ?

Five basic Chinese relationships - ruler & subject, father & son, husband & wife, elder brother & younger brother, friend & friend - most emphasized - filial piety (=oya kookoo), loyalty, and love or human heartedness (carefully graded according to the nature of the specific relationship)

ethics - a harmonious part of cosmos (center - human society, no all-powerful God)

West - duality - good vs. evil; East Asia - yang vs. yin (day & night, male & female, lightness & darkness) - no good-bad dichotomy - rather a sense of harmony and a balance of forces

Shame Culture (haji) - shame before the judgment of society is a stronger conditioning force than guilt over sin in the eyes of God - (this analysis should not be pushed too far)

- The Japanese think less in terms of abstract ethical principles than do Westerners and more in terms of concrete situations and complex human relations

-Stem - child-rearing techniques - infants and small children are treated quite permissively - constant contact with their mothers, never left alone (not any more)

strict sleeping and eating regimes; nursed for a relatively longer period; taking bath together and sleeping together; children are babied

ON and AMAE underlie the Japanese emphasis on the group over the individual

AMAE (or amaeru) - Affection of others - "sweet" "to look to others for affection" (physical and psychic dependence) - Child - expectation of understanding indulgence from the mother but accept her authority

Threat - people laugh at you; extreme punishment - ostracism (mura hachibu)

ON -benevolence or favor of the ruler, feudal lord, or parent - to signify the unlimited debt of gratitude or obligation of the recipient to the bestower of this grace

less of a sense of sin

no objection to drinking or drunkenness (lack of enzyme) - forgiven like children

no black and white legal decision - always compromise; importance of the original motive

polite at a time, but later extremely rude

worrying about what other person thinks of him/her - Enryo - reserve or constraint

Japanese do not develop new associations lightly.

unfamiliar situations - less guidance; loss of ethical bearings - more possible among the Japanese

4.2. Hierarchy

Keywords: egalitarian society, on and giri, sharing of authority

emphasis on hierarchy - ie, by age or length of membership

all ranks and positions - determined by birth - > by education (difference in personal ability)

egalitarian society - sense of class is weak (no class accent in speech) - group identification - due to education

stiff income tax and inheritance taxes - accumulation and transmission of wealth - far limited

class perception out of 7500 adults survey in 1992 (Japan 1994)

upper class 0.9%

upper middle class 10.4%

middle middle class 53.6

lower middle class 26.2

lower class 5.1

don't know 3.8

JPN house income (ave)- Y563855 (incl. bonus) $4,452/ month consume - 74.5%

personal income tax - 10-50%; US 15.6-31% in '92

corporate income tax - 49.98%, US 41.05% in '94

tax 1993 (Japan 1994) JPN (single/married with 2 children) US (NY)

Y3,000,000($24,194) 6.9% (0.2%) 15.3% (7.2%)

Y5,000,000($40,323) 9.7% (4.2%) 22.2%(12.6%)

Y7,000,000($56,452) 13.8% (7.7%) 26.0%(16.4%)

Y10,000,000($80,645) 19.5% (13.4%) 29.1%(22.2%)

Y20,000,000($161,290) 34.4% (31.4%) 33.2%(29.4%)

Y50,000,000($403,226) 50.1% (48.7%) 35.7%(34.8%)

JPN in 1993 direct tax 72.6 % (corporate tax 25.4/inheritance tax 4.2%), value added tax 8.5%

US in 1991 direct tax 90.8 % (corporate tax 15.4/inheritance tax 1.8%) value added tax 0%

highest rate of income taxes in 1996

Japan income tax 65% corporate tax 50%

US 46.6% 39.5%

sensei, kun, san, sama, titles are important (try to live up to their status)

ON and GIRI (the reciprocal sense of loyalty and duty)

sense of responsibility - high

Leaders - not forceful and domineering, but sensitive to the feelings of others

sharing of authority - decision-making -> Ringi system

Top down and bottom up in the company - Total Quality Control

4.3. The Individual and Gender Issues

Keywords: personal self-expression and social conformity, Kojin-shugi, Shutai-sei, my home-shugi, Self-expression, master-disciple bond, self-control and self-discipline, Suicide, kinbensei, westernized vs. modernized, job discrimination, OL, matriarchy plus male supremacy from Confucianism and feudalism, arranged marriage, divorce, sexuality, amae, will power and psychological strength, ryoosaikenbo

The clash between personal self-expression and social conformity naturally exists in Japan - revolt before WW II, Red Army, schoolboy delinquency (physical harassment of unpopular children)

Kojin-shugi, Shutai-sei, my home-shugi - nonconformist

Self-expression - in Art, novels (I novel), shumi

traditional skills - selfless- master-disciple bond is very important

self-control and self-discipline - live up to the rigid requirements of society - often unrealistic ambition

emphasis on hard work - diligence (kinbensei)

Not westernized, but modernized

sever job discrimination

- OL (office Ladies) - denied positions on the escalator of lifetime employment

- married and if wife's income is more than 1,000,000 yen, then more tax

female wages in manufacturing in 1999 JPN 56.7% US 68.2%

social life - little place for married women (new identity) - hobby, school

less emphasis on outside careers

Education -advancement rate to higher education (Japan 1994)

JPN 1991 38.2 male (37.2) female (39.3)

US 1989 44.1 male (41.2) female (47.1)

a woman should in youth obey her father, in maturity her husband, and in old age her son - still often seen

matriarchy plus male supremacy from Confucianism and feudalism

Great Learning, RYOOSAIKENBO (Good wife wise mother)

family oriented

arranged marriage - sleeping with children - fewer conjugal intimacies

taking a bath with children

Confucian philosophy - women - subordination to men - divorce in Edo - Nara and Edo

before WW II - economic reason - fewer divorce

JPN (1997) marriage 6.2 divorces 1.8 per 1000 population (Japan 2000)

US (1996) 8.8 4.3

UK (1995) 5.5 2.9

Promiscuity is no more of a problem than homosexuality

fertility - phallic symbols - in shrines

premarital sexual relations were condemned and marriages were frequently not registered till they bear children - incorrect statement

children's excessive attachment - am syndrome

women - more will power and psychological strength - patience

peasantry women - strong

wedding - Shinto, Christian

Abortion, Mizuko Kuyoo, Jizoo

Some Facts about Japanese Women (from C. Branren & T.Wilen (1993) Doing Business with Japanese Men. Stone Bridge Press)

Compared with the US

Average woman's salary as a percentage of the average man's

US 66% JPN 54%

Women as a percentage of elected officials

US 13% JPN 1%

Percentage of women in total labor force

US 44.9% JPN 40.1%

Percentage of women over 30 who have never been married

US 13.3% JPN 9.1%

Average number of children per family

US 1.9% JPN 1.7%

Annual divorce rate per 1,000 people

US 21.2% JPN 5.4%

Marriage rate per 1,000 people

US 15.1% JPN 8.6% (1990)

Rapes per 100,000 people

US 37.2% JPN 1.4%

Average age of first marriage

Men US 25.2 JPN 28.6

Women 23.3 25.1

Number of birth per 1,000 people

US 15 JPN 11

Age of conception (average age when women conceive)

US 23.4 JPN 26.6

Percentage of women having their first child who are over 30

US 24.2% JPN 19.8%

Teenage mothers per 1,000 teenagers

US 54 JPN 4

Teenage abortions per 1,000 teenagers

US 44.4 JPN 5.9

Percentage of families with children headed by a single male or female

Father US 3.3% JPN 1.2%

Mother US 19.7% JPN 9.3%

Percentage of dual-income families

US 71.2% JPN 52.3% (1989)