J a p a n e s e    C u l t u r e

As Foucault argued, in a society where sex is taboo, sex - in a cleansed form - becomes a social obsession. Cleansed sex, or romantic love, is a major Western obsession.

In Japanese society, on the other hand, where the womb and all it stands for is the most secret, hidden, scarlet taboo, motherly love seeps out everywhere. Even yakuza pretend to be elder brothers (perhaps in a sense mothers or care givers), and even the most hardened of businessmen learn to fawn ("amae") to their bosses. Japan is awash with fawning, spoiling, and people being cute.

Even building site labourers are cute. These work safety promotion posters depict building site labourers in a big-eyed, cute way. And building site labourers, in their knickerbockers, really do look cute too.

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Labels: culture, horror, japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, taboo, tabuu, theory, 日本文化

There is no door to this gentleman's toilet in a park in Yamaguchi. The park is in a residential area, along the side of the Fushino River in central Yamaguchi City. During the cherry blossom season the park is popular as a place to hold "flower watching" parties. When the weather is fine there are usually people walking their dogs, playing baseball, football or dodge ball or occasionally with remote control aeroplanes.

This means that if men or boys wish to urinate they must do so in full view of other users of the park. People from Anglophone cultures may feel very uncomfortable with this Japanese custom. I believe this is because there is a stronger taboo upon things associated with sex.

In Japan, on the other hand, there is a greater taboo associated with the sexuality of women (such as birth). Toilets for women always have doors. Japanese women’s toilets, also occasionally have devices for hiding the sound of the falling urine, by broadcasting the sound of a toilet flushing. Before such devices were available, Japanese women were, for the same reason, inclined to flush the toilet more than once during and after use.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, sex, taboo, tabuu, 日本文化

These these toilet roll cores have the words "Maido Arigatou Gozaimasu." Loosely it might be translated as, "Thank you for your custom," or "I am continually grateful." It is used specifically by salesmen and other representatives of companies when visiting their customers to express their on going gratitude to the customer for doing business with them. The first thing that is surprising about the message.

The second thing is that the literal translation of the message is "thank you every time." In this case, the company is thanking the customer for having used the product. Bearing in mind the use of the product, it seems a little intrusive to find this message at the end.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

Three strangely conflicting facts that may help to confirm a thesis expressed in "The Wealth of Nations," that nations have somethings that they are better at than others, and perhaps the main cultural theory of Timothy Takemoto (me).

Much computer hardware is made in Japan or by Japanese companies in Asia, or at least by Asians. In many areas of hardware, the Japanese take the lead. Toyota will soon put Ford and General Motors out of business even in the United States. General Motors sells hardly any cars in Japan, other than the occasional opel, to my wife.

On the other hand, generally, Japanese software is poor. There is no Japanese operating system, no popular Japanese spread sheet software, and the only well known Japanese word processing software "Ichi Taro" is losing fast to Word. Even the Kanji input software Atok is fighting to survive against Microsoft's "IME."

There is one area of software where the Japanese lead the world: video games. North Americans use the phrase "do nintendo," to describe the act of playing with a video game whether the software was created by that Japanese company or not.

Why are the Japanese good at making computers, cars, and video games, but bad at other forms of software (and banking)? I claim it is because they are good at things that they can see, whereas Westerners are good at things that can be said.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

I do not tire of pointing out the fact that the Japanese seem to have a hankering for blonde hair and green eyes. The tendency for "persons of colour" to try and make themselves look like caucasians is called the "Michael Jackson Syndrome" after the singer that changed his colour and shape of his face from those of an African American, to those of a caucasian. He maintains that the reasons for his attempted metamorphosis are aesthetic and to help him sing, rather than any attempt to imitate white men.

These hair bleach products from more than one manufacturer. They are the last row of goods before the checkout in my local supermarket. Products placed just before the checkout are those which encourage impulse buying such as cigarettes, glossy magazines, and choclates. Hair bleach, like pictures of movie stars, offers a method of instant escape. Men of women bleaching their thick straight black hair dream of leaving the humdrum world of supermarket checkouts, to join the green-eyed and blonde gods in the stars.

But why green eyed, why blonde? There is nothing more natural about a Japanese person with blonde hair than blue, or green eyes than pink. The fact that they come as a set blonde hair and green (or blue) eyes, suggests to me that the dream comes from the West. There is research which suggests that the more that Japanese believe themselves to look like Japanese, the more they believe they are ugly. This is a very sad, tragic state of affairs.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, westernisation, 日本文化

Ultraman comes from the star Ultra. There Ultra Mother and Ultra Father and 36 Ultra brothers.

What are the special characteristics of a Japanese hero?

1) They usually come in groups, as you can see here, rather than individually (Spiderman) or in pairs (Batman and Robin). There are 38 members of the Ultraman family.

2)They often have very large glowing eyes, like radioactive insects or blowfish.

3) They rarely speak. They do not seem to be able to open their mouths.

4) They change clothes instantaneously, by striking a certain pose, and do not need to enter a telephone booth or bat cave, or get undressed.

5) They like to strike poses which give them special powers such as the Ultraman elbow-stratch-L-shape which enables them to send an ultraman beam at their opponents. Combined with their inability to speak, they resemble Marcel Marceau.

6) Their special powers are often impermanent. Ultraman Taro is only super-powered for three minutes. He is warned that he will soon return to normal by a red light that starts to glow on his chest.

7) The seem to have no interest in the opposite sex. They never fly accross the Tokyo skyline with a lady in their arms. And this, despite the fact that, Ultra Mother and Ultra Father had a very large number of children.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

This photograph shows a Japanese lady whow was doing her makeup on a Japanese train.

This is a suprising phenomina for me because in the UK, people would be embarrassed to look at a mirror in a public place.
There are posters encouraging Japanese ladies to do their makeup at home. Nonetheless the behaviour seems more prevalent here, and in the past women looking at mirrors was a popular subject of floating world pictures (ukiyoe).
In the West, looking at a mirror is thought to be vain, and often associated with evil. The with in the Seven Dwarves was always looking into her mirror. Medusa was killed by a mirror. And when, in the play "Pygmallion" (Later to become the film "My Fair Lady" starring Audrey Hepburn) by George Bernard Shaw, the central character, Liza, finds a mirror in Higgins' bathroom she says
HIGGINS. I'm glad the bath-room met with your approval. (I am glad you liked the bathroom)
LIZA. It didn't: not all of it; and I don't care who hears me say it. Mrs. Pearce knows.
HIGGINS. What was wrong, Mrs. Pearce?
MRS. PEARCE. Oh, nothing, sir. It doesn't matter.
LIZA. I had a good mind to break it. I didn't know which way to look. But I hung a towel over it, I did.
HIGGINS. Over what?
MRS. PEARCE. Over the looking-glass, sir.
Liza finds the looking glass quite immoral even in private, but Japanese ladies do not mind using them on trains.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

Removing the top joints of fingers is one of the most Yakuza-typical behaviours. Yakuza remove top joints of their fingers to signify that they are sorry about something, such as not having paid back a debt, or having made a mistake. In the films at least, if a Yakuza makes a mistake he may he told to bring a finger by his boss. The lack of a finger joint is a sign of being a member of the "extreme path" (gokudou).

In Korea people remove portions of their fingers by way of protest, sometimes against the Japanese. Such protests would be inclined to backfire since finger removal is so closely associated with criminals.

In one manga i read, a Yakuza debt collector (some Yakuza earn their living in this way) threatened the debtor saying "If I don't take your debt back to my boss he is going to ask for my finger, so I will chop it off here," and proceeded to take out a kitchen knife and prepared to make the cut. The debtor was so alarmed at the prospect of seeing someone cut their finger off that they paid back their debt, before the yakuza drew blood.

Apparently it is "surprisingly painful." I am not sure what that means. It looks painful. How could it be surprising?

A gentleman that I knew with no top finger joint used a prosthetic finger to cover his loss. He was a restaurant manager when I met him but I could not help thinking that he was a Yakuza who had fallen from grace.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

The condoms and sexual strength enhancement potions on sale in a Japanese chemist.

The top rows contain a variety of sexual strength enhancement potions, such as Maca (a peruvian root) and extract of tortoise. There are many varieties of condom beneath. Japanese condoms are smaller and thinner than those sold in the UK.

The Japanese are big users and producers of condoms, with contraceptive pill being illegal until only a few years ago. Feminists see the absense of the pill as further evidence for the servile status of the Japanese woman.

I believe that his is related to the fact that women's sex organs are considerably more taboo than those of men. Men's hang out, and can be encapsulate in latex, but interfering with the dreaded womb would is treasonable.

Sadly, from the point of view of HIV prevention, the Japanese have been using less condoms recently, not apparently because they are using the contraceptive pill, but because they are having unsafe sex. One day soon HIV will hit Japan fairly hard.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, sex, 日本文化

Japanese Apples are big and expensive.

The price tag whited out to obscure producer, but they were shockingly expensive.

Each apple is at least the size of a grapefruit having been nurtured individually by a farmer whose farm is about the size of your back yard.

There is a myth in Japan that foreign produce is more likely to be contaminated with pesticides and herbicides. In fact, as far as I know (and according to a Newsweek or Time article) Japanese farmers, with their labour intensive mini farms producing giant fruit use more chemicals than anyone. I watched farmers of giant grapes (kyohou) from Okayama dip each and every one of their grapes into a solution of some sort of chemical which prevented the grape from creating seeds.

Fruit comes individually wrapped in pink plastic stockings, because it is so shockingly expensive. It may be fair to say that fruit is only eaten as a treat, rather than as a normal part of the Japanese diet.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

Note that the Japnaese dolls have blonde hair. This may not be all that significant bearing in mind the fact that the bear is blue. All the same though, the fact that dolls even in Japan are blonde probably increases their Michael Jackson complex.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, westernisation, 日本文化

A little girl leaves a stall of the men's and passes behind the men's urinals, rolling up her sleeves perhaps in preparation for washing her hands. I am not sure why she did not go to the women's. She seems big enough to go on her own. Perhaps she needed help with here summer cotton kimono? I don't think that she would be allowed in the gentlemen's' toilet in the UK. The men's toilets smell but they are not a terribly taboo place, here in the land of the naked men.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, sex, 日本文化

These "welcoming rice cakes" (Mukaedango) are put out at the beginning of the summer festival to welcome the return of the spirits of the ancestors to the family home.

According to the ethnologist Yanagita Kuniyo, the Obon festival is one of two times of the year when the spirits come to the home, the other being the New Years festival. The symmetry between the two festivals, at the festival for the ancestors (obon) in Summer and the New Year Festival (shougatsu), is visible in the details, in the fact for instance that round rice cakes are put out on display.

In my own opinion, I see obon as a Shinto, or Shinto-Buddhist festival.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

This is not sake but "shouchuu" Japanese vodka, made from potatoes, wheat, or rice and distilled to a fairly potent 25 percent alcohol by volume. It is rumoured not to give the drinker much of a hangover due to its purity. It is drunk straight, with ice, or with hot water (for maximum effect).

The Japanese are not ashamed to say that they drink alcohol for its effect. The bottles are big, and the consumption among middle aged men appears to be quite high.

The brand names and logos of the products in the photograph are copyright their respective manufacturers.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

The Japanese love rice. It seemed appropriate to make a flag out of a rice barrel. The image used to make this flag can be viewed here at flickr

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

They don't have the rhomboid Western style saws in Japan to this day, only these saws shaped like swords. I wonder if Japanese people know what a western wood saw looks like.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

Edo period erotic art on sake cups. Sex or at least certainly nakedness was not so taboo in Japan as it was in the West. It is perhaps for this reason that erotic art had to be outlandishly erotic. Nakedness is not suggestive of eroticism - wealth and expensive kimono are sexier. The genitals (NOT shown on these modern cups) are drawn disproportionately large - about the same size as the face- and in graphic detail. These cups are to make the act of drinking rice wine, where one usually fills the cup of ones drinking companion titillating.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, sex, 日本文化

Large second hand cars in Japan are cheap. This Nissan Gloria had 80,000 kilometers on the clock and should run for as much again but it has a price tag of a mere 1500 USD.

The Japanese are very environmentally conscious in some ways. There is a lot of recycling, use of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power, investment in energy saving technology such as hybrid cards, very economical cars, use of traditional energy saving devices such as heated coffee tables, bed warmers, and taps that allow one to wash ones hands with the water that fills the toilet cistern. But one area in which the Japanese do not excel is that of using second hand products.

Second hand products are seeing a considerable increase in popularity at the moment, but until a few years ago there were very few second hand clothes and appliance stores. The prices of second hand cars was low. And the "large rubbish" days when Japanese threw away television sets, bicycles and other items that might otherwise find their way to a second hand store were a bonanza of perfectly usable stuff but those that carted it away were often gaijin.

The Japanese seem to feel that second hand goods are in some sense dirty and thus defiled. Perhaps it is the shinto influence. I wonder if Shinto shrines could team up with second hand stores to offer purified (oharai sumi) second hand goods.

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

The Japanese are so keen to express things visually that instead of using menus they have rows of models depicting food outside of many restaturants. There is an area of Tokyo where there are model food craftsmen. The model food is very realistic.

For my explanation of the philosophy behind model food, please see this post on model ice cream

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化

There are many areas of public morality in which the Japanese excell. One of these is the relative absense of theft.

For example it used to amaze me how Japanese can leave cleaning products in public places, such as in the public toilet above, and that no one steals them. The bucket, broom and cloth toilet brush and bleach are perhaps too old and dirty for even Britons to whish to steal them, but placed as they are in an unlocked and isolated public toilet, I predict that they would not long remain intact in the UK. If things are not locked up or nailed down, then they are either stolen, or if they are of little use then they would be destroyed, destroyed. In the UK, if no one was interested in stealing the broom then someone would probably use it to beat in the windows of the toilet, then break it in half and then throw it into the bushes.

Cleaning products and utensils for cleaning such as these can be seen left in toilets, shrines, parks and even bus stops.


But there are some crimes that the Japanese seem to be into such as pork barrelling, confidence trickery, "dangou" cartells, reading books before purchase, and speed limits are liberally interpretted, as are of occasion are the constitution, international treaties, and marriage vows.

All the same though, I generally believe in the moral superiority of the Japanese!

Labels: japan, japanese culture, nihonbunka, 日本文化