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The Japan Thread

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Nicky

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I consider Japan to be the second greatest culture in the world. In quite a few ways, it's actually better than the United States.

So, I'm thinking that there are Objectivists out there who have something good to say about Japan. There are dozens of threads on this forum about the US, and none about Japan. Seems unfair. This thread is me testing that theory. Please, post away.

What do you consider good about Japan?

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The culture is very orderly. As pointed out by Richard Feynman in his book, Surely Your Joking..., this can be a liability. Japanese food is a delight, as is how it is sometimes served. A dear friend of mine who is Japanese is always kind and considerate. He is consciencious and clean to a fault. One could not ask for a better friend. A former girlfriend's family preferred that she marry within her race. I guess that makes sense from their point of view. I have known dozens of Japanese at all levels of ambition and intelligence. Stereotypes in terms if intelligence are not true--they are not all super smart. They are just people like everywhere else on earth. I do not care for Japanese music, TV or movies, nor for Shinto or Buddhist religions. Japanese art is often subtle and refined. Has this covered the cultural gammut? Well, I do not read Japanese so I cannot comment on the literature.

There is no American culture, only a mix of cultures. I do not see America as quite so monolithic.

Edited by aleph_1
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What do you consider good about Japan?

I don't know much about Japan, so my opinion consists of a blob here and a blob there. I admire two well-known phases from their history: the modernization that came with the Meiji Restoration and their post WW-II transformation. On the negative side, is their martial-politics preceding WW-II and their cruel treatment of prisoners during WW-II. [For the latter, I rely on the chapters in "Modern Times" by Paul Jones.]

They seem to have a Confucian-style respect for hard-work & loyalty, and yet -- along with the traditional -- they appear pretty avante-garde when it comes to some aspects of sex (the bastion of traditionalism).

On the economics front, I have a small bet against the Yen, but I'm not comfortable making any big bet against the U.S. or Japan. The former because it has a way of bumbling through, the latter because I "fear" they can turn on a dime.

Currently, I'm half-way through a decent book -- "A Diplomat in Japan: The Inner History of the Critical Years in the Evolution of Japan When the Ports Were Opened and the Monarchy Restored (Stone Bridge Classics)" (Gutenberg has a free version). 

 

I'd like to know what you like about their culture. Feel free to post some good links.

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I lived in Japan for 3 years. I admire many superficial aspects of their culture, but despise the apparent source of such traditions. The cleanliness, politeness, quality of service, food presentation, etc. is all amazing. The problem, I think, is that much of it is motivated by a duty ethic.

From talking to fellow servicemembers who married Japanese women and saw a bit more "behind the curtain" than I could as a gaijin, the exceptional public politeness towards neighbors and foreigners is often offset by gossip and racism only expressed within the household. I think reading Rand's books can give a clue to how a duty ethic can lead to resentment,

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I can't comment on the culture at large. But the great-grandmother of my children is one of the most racist people I know personally. She doesn't like black people (except for Snoop Dog, for whatever reason). She likes white people enough to have had children with one of them.

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My impression of current Japanese culture and prevalent attitudes comes manly from watching a lot of media (except for politics, I know almost nothing about Japanese politics), but also direct interactions with Japanese people (including work related). What I'm left with is an impression of unusual honesty and positivity. Or, rather, what jumps out at me, both in media and direct interactions, is the lack of dishonesty and cynicism that is so prevalent in other countries' media, and among regular people.

Obviously, this doesn't mean that there are no dishonest and cynical Japanese, but honesty and optimism (I'm talking about assuming that someone is a good person, until proven otherwise) are an aesthetic standard in media and art, and seem to be the norm in everyday life (although I admit, I could be working off a biased sample in the latter category).

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There are lots of great things about Japan but lots of negative things too:

  • It's geriatric - it's the oldest population on the planet, which is growing older at the fastest rate. Apparently no one is having babies and the population is in freefall - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24638188
  • This means most of your taxes as a young person are being spent on the elderly.
  • It's heavily indebted - government debt is 200% of GDP compared to 70-100% for most western countries.
  • It's inward looking - ie. immigration is severely curtailed.
  • It has a high suicide rate, indicating that people may find it more difficult to be happy in their culture.
  • There is a crazy work culture - the Japanese earn about the same level of money as Europeans but work many more hours to get the same income.
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I've plenty on the negative but since the focus is on the good...

 

They've apologized more than a few times to S. Korea, and even Abe refrains from visiting the Yasukini shrine. So there's hope (in the US) that Japan and S. Korea will mend enough to form an alliance that'll discourage China from its N. Korea holdings. 

Edited by Ben Archer
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My impression of current Japanese culture and prevalent attitudes comes manly from watching a lot of media (except for politics, I know almost nothing about Japanese politics), but also direct interactions with Japanese people (including work related). What I'm left with is an impression of unusual honesty and positivity. Or, rather, what jumps out at me, both in media and direct interactions, is the lack of dishonesty and cynicism that is so prevalent in other countries' media, and among regular people.

Obviously, this doesn't mean that there are no dishonest and cynical Japanese, but honesty and optimism (I'm talking about assuming that someone is a good person, until proven otherwise) are an aesthetic standard in media and art, and seem to be the norm in everyday life (although I admit, I could be working off a biased sample in the latter category).

I visited Japan last summer for a vacation and to visit my brother who taught there for two years and I noticed a lot of honesty and benevolence. Retail workers and strangers on the street were incredibly kind and helpful as were the adult students and friends of my brother that I met. Shops often had their merchandise laid out in such a way that wouldn't be possible in North America due to shop lifters. My brother lived in a city that had been devastated by the tsunami and while looking through the destroyed areas, you could see that nothing had been looted and the homes of families that had been killed were left completely alone. 

I've not seen much Japanese media recently, but there are two that I really enjoyed; Howl's Moving Castle, a film by Miyazaki and the anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

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As with any collective of any national or ethnic group, I believe it its bit unfair to judge Japanese culture, for better or worse. A person of Japanese ancestry is still an individual, and should not be judged by the virtues or crimes of generations past or present. However, if there is one quality associated with Japan that strikes me as noteworthy, it is their industrious nature. Americans, for the most, have fading memories of the Bushido-Shinto, warrior-mysticism, related to Japan's past. But the collective attitude common in Japan has earned my admiration for having restored their island-nation to full industrial competitiveness.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I consider Japan to be the second greatest culture in the world. In quite a few ways, it's actually better than the United States.

So, I'm thinking that there are Objectivists out there who have something good to say about Japan. There are dozens of threads on this forum about the US, and none about Japan. Seems unfair. This thread is me testing that theory. Please, post away.

What do you consider good about Japan?

How did Japan come to be that way after centuries of isolation? What I find heroic about Japan is that it could absorb the good aspects of Western Industrialization while carefully filtering the unwanted. It requires more than strength to become a colonial power in the late XIXc when the trend was for it to succumb to colonialism under a foreign influence. 

Japan was opened up to trade out of its isolationism or confrontationalism by the United States of America.

Maybe the advantage Japan had was to be colonized by the US rather than other colonial power (but so were Puerto Rico and the Philippines). The advantage of Japan was its being able to keep its own identity during those long centuries of isolationism, and that spell of militarism.  Like the isolationism of the pre Meiji era, and the rebelliousness of the Fascist era, Japan is now again isolated and rebellious by not accepting any aspect of Marxism (they have their own collectivism in the form of traditionalism) including Multiculturalism. While accepting immigrants would make life in Japan easier in some economic respects, it would not allow the challenges of a true post industrial society. Maybe the first one. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

The complaints about studies are to be expected. The two things that I did not expect:

  • they mention a wealth gap as a problem, even though Japan has a reputation of having low variability in incomes (at least relative to other countries). 
  • their comments on "international relations" are more hawkish than I would expect from high-schoolers [many American kids would probably list the U.S. as too bullying, but the Jap kids seem to be saying Japan does not stand up for itself]
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  • 9 months later...

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