People Of Contrasts: A Foreigner Looks At The Japanese

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 6

People Of Contrasts: A Foreigner Looks At The Japanese

By

KEN COATES,

who spent three months in Japan under the 1970 Mobil Travel Award.

New Zealanders, with a tendency to accept people as they find them, should get along well with the Japanese. After three months in their country, I came to like and admire them.

They are different, of course—both from Westerners and from the image of cherry blossoms, geisha and Mount Fuji which Japan still seems to project abroad.

For every assertion about the Japanese, there is a contradiction, but economic success all over the world has brought, them a confidence in themselves. Many are alert, perceptive, dynamic and have a lively awareness that makes them both interesting and challenging. I say challenging because many Japanese are competitive by nature. “She’ll be right,” is an attitude most people in Japan could not possibly accept In a competitive society, “it must be right” to meet the market is something they understand very well. The Japanese are a highly civilised people and well educated. They are keenly aware of the world around them, and particularly of their own country’s relation to it

One reason for this is the highly developed news media. The people are great newspaper readers—one of several national papers, for example, has a daily circulation of 6 million. Television is highly organised, and technically excellent; colour TV is superb. When the Japan Airlines jet airliner was hi-jacked by students, coverage was full, detailed and nation-wide.

While the Japanese are intensely proud of Japan and its achievements, they are also keenly interested in other countries. They want to measure up among the advanced nations. “I would like to travel outside Japan, not to emigrate to another country, but to compare other countries with my own,” is a frequently expressed wish of young people. Interest In Others For years the Japanese have been adopting foreign ideas in developing their expanding technology. The Toyo Kogyo company’s perfection of the rotary car engine is just one of many examples. But I met many people interested in the way of life in other countries, how the individual fares in New Zealand, people’s attitudes and the social system. The Japanese are prepared to work a darned sight harder than we are. Maybe competition for jobs makes this compulsory, but there is a tendency also to finish the job in hand before the end of the day, rather than clockwatch, and finish work at a particular time. “1 never take annual holidays,” one salaryman told me. “In Japan it is not the custom; there is always too much work to be done, and you never know what the situation will be when you return after such a long absence.” Most people in Japan are ambitious. It begins in childhood. and continues throughout life. It can be an admirable quality, resulting in drive and self-disciplined effort There are signs too, according to some Japanese, that some companies are changing from the traditional policy of promotion on years of service and age to promotion on merit. One of the most ambitious young men I met in Tokyo was a company employee who had spent two years in Australia entirely on his own initiative learning all he could about the meat export trade, before returning to seek a position. Hospitable People Japanese people are hospitable, sometimes to the point of embarrassment A foreign visitor is always an honoured guest: he is wined and dined lavishly; often he is given presents and entertained without any expense being spared. I am one of the few foreigners to have had the experience of staying with Japanese families in their own homes. Although it meant a major domestic upheaval and much inconvenience for my hosts—an ordinary house is incredibly small by New Zealand standards—they were almost insulted when I offered to pay expenses.

But families showed touching kindness and consideration. In one house, a Western-style bed (too short by at least six taches) but comfortable, had hurriedly been moved into one of the rooms.

A Japanese-style breakfast with the piquant flavour of dried fish and soy sauce is hardly palatable to a foreigner brought up on eggs and bacon. Next morning, in one Japanese household, appeared piping hot eggs and bacon, without a word being said. In Japan, it seems, once a friend, always a friend. Perhaps it is because of the strong sense of obligation developed in the family, the circle of friends, or the company, that relation-

ships figure so importantly in this country of millions. But this means people behave differently towards people they know and strangers. They will elbow you out of the way getting on to a crowded train or bus, but if friends meet even in the crush of a railway station, there will be much polite bowing and smiling. Code Of Courtesy There is a code of courtesy, duty and obligation within the group. It is said the Japanese are happier within the group, than outside it; as a member of a group, they find security, and are also able to cope with the many tensions of living in a country in which there is such pressure on space. Naturally enough, the Japanese cannot abide superiority and condescension. They will of course not show their displeasure, because it is not in their nature to embarrass anyone, but basically their reactions will be the same as those of any other people. They soon relax if the foreigner relaxes, and many show the most delightful warmth and sense of humour. However, the visitor must not laugh at the expense of the Japanese; it makes them acutely uncomfortable and is exceedingly bad manners. Once in Tokyo I had difficulty in locating a picture theatre. In my limited Japanese, I asked the way. Although as it turned out I was several blocks away, the young man I stopped got out of his car and conducted me personally to the door of the theatre. Admittedly some Japanese will not admit that they do not know the way, but non-co-operation is very often the result of non-comprehension. I found that once people understand what it was I wanted, then they would do their utmost to help. If you don’t know the language, it helps to speak English slowly. If a Japanese knows English, the chances are he will only understand if you speak slowly and distinctly. Sense Of Beauty The Japanese are an extremely artistic people with a very real appreciation of beauty. This is demonstrated in very many ways, one of which is a very real effort to preserve traditional theatre and other aspects of their ancient culture. Like New Zealanders, the Japanese love sport. Participating, they expend tremendous effort, and go all out to win. Baseball is universally popular; traditional sumo wrestling has millions of fans, and those who can afford it play golf or go ski-ing. A foreign columnist wrote recently in an English-langu-age newspaper published in Tokyo that there are two types of foreigners in- Japan —starry-eyed lovers of cherry blossoms and the superficial, picturesque Japan (which incidentally is increasingly hard to find these days) and haters of Japan. It is easy for visitors paying a brief visit to be delighted by the outward charm of bows, smiles, flowery kimono, exotic food and entertainment

The columnist to my mind was guilty of a gross oversimplification, but there are contradictions about the Japanese which play havoc with generalisations. They are certainly dynamic and intensely proud of their country. There is nothing wrong with this, you may say —it’s a pity we were not more proud of New Zealand. Business Methods For foreigners in business in Japan complain that this emphasis on Japan Incorporated makes the Japanese ruthless competitors who use any advantage to score over a competitor. And then there is the way of doing business- group decisions often mean frustrating delays for the foreigner, and there is also the taking of tea, the polite talk, the introduction and the entertainment But as one foreign businessman emphasised, you either do business the Japanese way, or you do not do it at all.

While many neople are hard-working in Japan, a hard look at a large department store or even a company office can reveal many people standing around either doing nothing, or “busying” themselves with trivial jobs.

Companies seldom sack people; if an employee lacks ability, he is quietly moved aside into a ' job.

This makes for apparent overstaffing, but this has some advantages when a firm is expanding. Ambition may be all very laudable, but one young man told me he had no chance of getting to the top in his firm because his family connections were ”ot good enough. And help and co-operation extended the foreigner can wear a little thin if the person involved insists he is doing it out of a sense of duty.

Patriotic feeling for Japan may also be a good thing, but the Japanese who decided to work for a foreign company in Japan may well experience difficulty in getting employment with a Japanese firm, if he decides to leave. Obligations Obligations towards friends and relations can also be a burden. One man described to me how a friend of his father’s begged him to marry his daughter. “She was as wide as a barrel; I did not want to marry her, but he went down on his knees and begged me, ‘please, please," would I marry his daughter. What could I do?” The girl is today his wife. And then there is the double standard of Japanese behaviour which apparently for some allows them to act as they please when outside the home, family or close group in which they ordinarily live. Fidelity for some—and here many Japanese maintained to me it is only a minority—does not exist There is also the curious contradiction of a highly civilised and cultured people acting without consideration to others when outside their close group. It is disconcerting to say the least to see people spitting on the pavement, dropping rubbish in parks, trains and practically anywhere except inside their own homes which are usually spotless. And it comes as a shock, especially to foreign women, still to see Japanese men urinatin'; at the side of the street, on some-one’s private garden, or even on the newly laid plots at Osaka’s new international airport. Tokyo’s maze of subways are a study in the behaviour of the Japanese en masse. The frail elderly Japanese granny, in kimono and wooden geta (sandals), looks as though she needs a kind helping hand on to the train. But 100 to one she will be first through the doors, head inclined and elbows weaving. The discomfort as a solid wall of humanity heaves forward into an already packed railway carriage at rush hour is considerable. And later, in the evening, it is an off-putting experience when lack of consideration is shown by revellers travelling home by train, and they find it difficult to hold their liquor. Strange Contrasts At times, the most elaborate politeness is shown; the ancient Japanese tea ceremony, for example, is rich in elegance and grace. But the noisy relish with which most Japanese eat their meals can be difficult for a foreigner to accept, especially if from childhood he has been told to eat quietly. Bowing and exchanges of pleasantries,' and on occasions gifts, contrast strangely with the atrocious traffic manners of the Japanese. And most foreigners find it difficult to accept the complete lack of courtesy, in Western terms, given women. At present, with Expo 70 attracting more visitors from abroad than usual, Western men occasionally can be seen, on the Expo train especially, standing up and offering their seats to Japanese women.

The effect is interesting and often amusing. The men pretend not to notice, and the women are delighted profuse in their thanks and smiling and bowing in appreciation. f'

One of the biggest problems for foreigners, and perhaps for Japanese in communication, is language. Many people, who are highly educated and cultured, give entirely the wrong impression of themselves when they use their poor and limited English. Conversation is restricted to meaningless trivia. Many are reluctant to speak English, and are a little like the French in this respect After all, it’s their country, why should they? Sometimes they feel foreigners will laugh at their poor English, so rather than

suffer embarrassment, they will pretend they know none. The number of foreigners who can speak Japanese fluently is few and admittedly it is an extremely difficult language to learn to speak well. But it seems to me that the longer people like us, who will have much closer links. with the Japanese people in the future, put off seriously studying their language and their culture, the longer there will be misunderstanding and difficulty. Many of the differences that cause annoyance are due

to factors we, as outsiders, do not understand.

Although more Japanese are travelling abroad than ever before, they are still an insular people. A foreigner, whether he is from Russia, the United States or New Zealand, is always a foreigner. As I said, I like and admire the Japanese. But we can only come to like them as a nation if we know and understand them. And this takes some effort and working at on our part.