Japan, an island country of Asia, situated off the eastern coast of the continent. Extending some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from northeast to southwest, Japan consists of four main islandsHokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikokuas well as numerous smaller islands. The name Japan means "the source of the sun," or more poetically, "the land of the rising sun." As the Japanese pronounce it, the term can be rendered as Nihon or Nippon.
The Japanese state was founded over 2,000 years ago and is today the oldest monarchy in the world. When compared with the civilizations of China or India, however, Japan is one of the youngest of the major nations of Asia. Though the country was settled over the course of many thousands of years, it did not enter the era of recorded history until some 15 centuries ago. The early inhabitants of the archipelago, descendants mainly of emigrants from the Asian continent, were the heirs and transmitters of diverse cultures. Yet by the time their historical age opened in the 5th century , a homogeneous pattern of life had begun to prevail in most parts of the islands. Ever since, homogeneity has been a principal characteristic of Japan's population and culture.
Geographical Isolation
Over the centuries, geographical isolation from other centers
of civilization was a critical element in the political and cultural
history of Japan. Because of its situation off the coast of Asia,
remote from the centers of world civilization, the Japanese archipelago
neither overly excited the curiosity of other peoples nor offered
a prospect of easy accessibility. This does not mean that alien
ideas and customs did not continuously percolate into the life
of the islanders or that they themselves were indifferent to cultural
novelties. An examination of the Japanese way of life at any time
in the historical past reveals strong infusions from foreign cultures.
The tempo of foreign-inspired innovation varied according to historical
circumstances. At certain times the Japanese people even made
concerted efforts to avail themselves of the benefits of alien
experiences in living. But whether one points to the strong Chinese
cultural influences in pre-modern times or to the Western influences
after the mid-19th century, the strength and durability of the
indigenous Japanese institutions, ideas, customs, and way of life
should never be minimized. Isolation made the Japanese acutely
mindful of their historical and cultural heritage.
The Formation of a Modern State
In the 19th century, Japan arrived at a fateful crossroads in
its history. Confronted by a crumbling domestic order and simultaneously
by the pressures of an expanding Western world, Japan had to make
epochal decisions on its national policy. Understandably, those
who were involved in the decision-making process were far from
united in their proposals. However, despite the constant confusion
and even strife among the country's leaders, the conviction prevailed
that fundamental changes in the established order and way of life
had to be made. Once the nation decided to enter the world community
and the technological age, there was little desire for or possibility
of retreat.
The history of Japan following this decision, which was implemented by the Meiji Restoration in 1868, is one of the wonder stories of modern times. Constructing the apparatus of a modern state, drastically overhauling their social system, erecting a new economic structure in which industrialization assumed a key role, and forging an overseas empire, the Japanese excited first the admiration and then the fear of much of the world. Because of Japan's closely defined social structure, traditions, and most of all, its homogeneous population, the nation was able to address itself exclusively to the task of modernization and at the same time produce strong and farsighted leaders for guidance through the turbulent changes of the second half of the 19th century. A key factor, however, in the development of modern Japan was that, unlike so many other non-European nations, Japan had never been a colony of any other nation in the world. No foreign power ever denied Japan the use of its own resources or the development of its own people. Thus all of Japan's power could be directed, sometimes too vigorously perhaps, toward the building of the nation.
Japan's political and military leaders, both before and after World War I, when the island empire was accorded Great Power status, were agreed upon the necessity of promoting the growth of their national strength and wealth. They did not, however, always see eye to eye on the uses of their power and resources. This key issue was at the root of many of the disputes that raged within the Japanese government for many years, notably during the critical decade of the 1930's. It received unfortunate resolution when, in 1941, the decision was reached to wage war against the United States. Soon thereafter it became apparent that a serious miscalculation had been made, the cost of which was literally the physical destruction of the Japanese Empire.
Defeat in World War II compelled the Japanese people to rethink the crucial issue of their national goals. In meeting this challenge they were supported by the Allied occupation forces, stationed in Japan from 1945 to 1952, which directed them toward new political, if not necessarily philosophical, targets. Advice from the United States spurred them on to restructure their national and local institutions and to reconceive their political and social values.
Many elements of continuity with the prewar period continued to prevail in postwar Japan. But Japanese life was more radically transformed than during any comparable period in Japanese history.
Hyman Kublin
Brooklyn College
Japan: People
For more than 20 centuries the Japanese have been an extraordinarily homogeneous ethnic group. Many factors together give them a distinct identity: their clearly bounded island homeland, their common language and shared customs, and their single historical tradition. Traced further back, however, their origins appear as mixed and diverse as those of any other people.
Personal Names
In the article on Japan, Japanese persons generally are identified according to the name by which they are best known in Japanese tradition. Following Japanese usage, if the person has a family name it precedes the given name. Once a person's full name is stated, he or she is referred to thereafter either by the family name alone or by the given name alone, again according to Japanese custom.
1. Population
Stone tools that date from 100,000 or more years ago suggest that the earliest inhabitants of Japan probably were premodern hominids like the contemporaneous makers of similar tools in the eastern part of the Asian continent. Stone tools are also found in continuous sequence back about 13,000 years, which suggests a second and much later group of inhabitants. But neither group could have been numerous. The second group may have been among the genetic ancestors of the historic Japanese; but so also were still later arrivals who, archaeology suggests, trickled into the islands in small groups by various routes and lived, as scattered bands, on wild foods. The remains left by these later arrivals constitute what is known as Jomon culture. For some thousands of years such hunting and food-gathering tribes, comprising separate breeding populations, formed the population of the Japanese islands.
Ethnic History
After about 250 , what is identified as Yayoi culture became common
throughout western Japan and began to penetrate the northeast.
The most outstanding characteristic of the Yayoi culture was agriculturestressing
swamp ricewhich spread rapidly after its introduction from the
Asian mainland. Yayoi culture predominated for five centuries,
and its basic patterns persisted after the advent of huge earth
tombs in the mid-3d century In the interval, a common language,
interchange of customs, and intermarriage within a growing population
appear to have set the base for the ethnic homogeneity that marked
Japan in the earliest periods of recorded history. Undoubtedly
as this people became homogeneous it absorbed many of the inhabitants
of the various Jomon preagricultural tribes. It also received
increments in later times, such as groups of artisans and farmers
from Korea. But there is no evidence of additions that significantly
altered the firm cultural unity of the Japanese people, formed
in the early centuries of the Christian era.
As products of this ethnic history, today's Japanese are East Asian in physical makeup and genetic composition. Characteristic features are brown or black hair and eyes, skin of a yellowish or ruddy tint, sparse growth of hair on the face and body, broad faces, and a tendency toward slender physique. The so-called Mongolian eye fold that descends low over the inner part of the eye and gives an inwardly slanting appearance to the eye is frequent.
Most Japanese admire the more gently rounded bodily and facial contours of Southeast Asian peoples, perceiving themselves as stockier and more angular. Yet within their own general physical pattern there are many noticeable regional and family variations, probably accounted for by relative isolation, or self-selection of breeding groups. The Japanese range from quite stocky to very slender build, with much variety of face shape, hair form, skin color, stature, and other features.
Modern living is bringing striking physical changes. Most readily measured is an overall increase of stature, due to rapidly improved nutrition. Body build, posture, and movement have changed in more subtle ways, accented by habituation to Western clothing, furniture, work, means of transportation, and sports activities.
Minority Groups
Persons whose ethnic identity or physical appearance distinguishes
them from the majority group are relatively rare and unusual in
Japan. The largest minority are the "outcastes," usually
called burakumin, who may number approximately 2% of the total
population. However, they are physically indistinguishable from
other Japanese. Next most numerous are foreigners, chiefly Koreans,
who make up less than 1% of the population. Finally, there are
the Ainu, a tribal people of Hokkaido Island in northern Japan;
even counting those people who have lost their tribal identity
in towns and cities, the highest estimate of Ainu population is
about 18,000. Although the constitution of Japan prohibits "discrimination
in political, economic, or social relations because of race, creed,
sex, social status, or family origin" (Article 14), all of
these minority groups experience various forms of discrimination
in the areas of housing, employment marriage, and education.
Most of the burakumin live and marry in social segregation. They make up communities spread thickly through western Honshu but sparsely scattered elsewhere. Their older name, eta, meaning "pollution abundant," has become hardly proper to use in Japan, where the euphemisms "special village" (tokushu buraku) or just "village people" (burakumin) have gained currency.
The burakumin live in ghettolike sections of towns and cities or in separate villages. In late premodern times they came to monopolize certain occupations that were despised or thought to be defiling: they were butchers and leatherworkers, repaired foot-clogs (geta), took care of cemeteries, and operated crematories. Despite constitutional and other legal protections, burakumin who "pass" as ordinary Japanese face the possibility that their origins will be revealed through investigations made prior to employment or marriage. Courts, for example, have sometimes granted a divorce to Japanese of either sex on grounds that a burakumin background had been misrepresented. Although a few persons of this group have attained some wealth or political prominence, the majority are numbered among the poor.
Koreans constitute about 45% of the foreigners who live in Japan. Most of them are Japanese-born but are legally aliens, and many have never been to Korea or learned to speak Korean. Because of barriers to employment, many operate small businesses such as pachinko (pinball) parlors and restaurants, but few have become wealthy in competition with businesses operated by Japanese. Others have made successes as sports and entertainment figures, though without using their Korean names.
Chinese form the next-largest foreign group. Significant numbers are merchants or restaurant owners who have done well in Japan.
East and Southeast Asians who were born in Japan and have a native fluency in the Japanese language often pass as Japanese and adapt well to mainstream customs. Other groups, such as North Americans and Europeans, tend to make their living in occupations that do not require learning Japanese well and form foreign subcultures in the larger cities.
The Ainu were the main inhabitants of Hokkaido and adjacent islands until the Japanese rushed to colonize this northern frontier late in the 19th century. Though these people have come to be known by the single name Ainu, which means "man" in the Ainu language of Hokkaido, they may really be a composite of the various tribes of similar culture that were pushed northward through the last thousand years. In appearance and culture, they have much similarity to continental tribes, such as the Goldi and Gilyak of the Amur River or the Orok, Orochi, and other tribes of the Russian Federation's maritime region north of Manchuria. All of these groups supplemented some primitive cultivation with much reliance on hunting and fishing for their subsistence.
The Ainu have ruddy skins lighter than the Japanese, and the men favor luxuriant beards. Women used to tattoo their faces, broadening their lips. The Ainu are almost completely detribalized and live as an impoverished minority in towns and cities of Hokkaido. Large numbers have moved to Tokyo and crossed over into Japanese life. A few hundred still speak a much Japanized Ainu.
Demography
Before the modern period, Japan showed a consistently high birthrate
and high death rate. The high death rate, resulting from nutritional
deficiencies, coupled with infanticide, kept the population level
constant at about 30 million for over a century up to about 1850.
The changes that were crowded into the next 100 years were more
spectacular than in Europe because of their rapidity. First, the
death rate dropped well below the birthrate, resulting in a rapid
net growth. Birthrates began to sag after 1920 but not faster
than death rates, so that the annual increment stayed fairly high,
at a level of about 1.2% per year, until after World War II. The
war cost Japan about 1.8 million dead, but when peace came, reunited
young parents initiated a "baby boom"; coupled with
the repatriation of 5 million citizens, this more than restored
the wartime losses. Then the long-term trend toward fewer children
took hold again, encouraged by the 1952 legislation that favored
birth control and established a liberal policy toward abortions.
Ever since, the birthrate has hovered more closely above the death
rate.
Even though better health care has given Japanese the world's highest life expectancy at birth, there is no longer a population boom. The rate of natural increase is only about 0.2% a year, and net migration is a negligible factor in Japan's population growth. If fertility remains at or near the present level, the population will be approximately 128 million by the year 2010.
More than three fourths of the people live in urban places, and the population is heavily concentrated in a few highly industrialized metropolitan centers. More than 60% of the people are crowded into 2.7% of the total land area, living in densely inhabited districts at or above 10,000 persons per square mile (4,000 per sq km). The central cities of metropolitan areas can no longer absorb large gains in population, and both Tokyo and Osaka suffered population losses after 1970. "Bedroom towns" have mushroomed on the edges of the large cities, filling space along the entire Pacific coast from Tokyo to northern Kyushu.
If this trend is not altered, two results are in prospect. First, all the "big six" metropolitan centers on Honshu (Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe) will be merged into a Pacific seaboard megalopolis. Second, most other areas will be drained of the younger, better-trained people most needed on farms so that a reduced agricultural work force is able to feed the ever-growing number of city dwellers. Population losses have been most marked in smaller towns and villages, where the number of children, housewives, and elderly persons is quite out of proportion to that of men in the productive age range.
A problem of growing dimensions concerns the population age structure. The lengthened life span is producing unusually large groups of middle-aged and elderly persons, who are less employable in modernized businesses and even now are underemployed (not working full-time). Being less fully self-sufficient, these older persons are a source of increasing pressure on the slowly developing but still weak social welfare system.
Richard K. Beardsley
Coauthor of Village Japan
2. Society and Way of Life
Japan is the only non-Western nation that is also an economic superpower, with the second-largest gross national product in the non-Communist world. The country's economic development, however, confronts foreigners with a seeming paradox: while Japan is Western in its modern technology, it is thoroughly non-Western in its history and social organization. If the West is to communicate effectively with this economically powerful nation, it must learn to understand in what ways Japan's culture differs from its own. Japanese perspectives on the self, on group organization, and on hierarchy are based on Asian traditions and affect virtually every aspect of Japanese social life. Understanding such perspectives yields insight into a country that excels in both individual achievement and collective orientation; and where both economic achievements and human social ties have top priority.
Basic Social Perspectives
Fundamental to Japanese culture is a perception of the self that contrasts with individualism in the West. The Japanese focus more than Westerners do on relations with others and the social requirements that these connections impose. They view the self more often in a social context, whereas in the West the individual is more often considered as an autonomous unit.
On the other hand, it is too simplistic to label the Japanese as "group-oriented" and Westerners as "individualistic." Japanese do acknowledge the individual, while Westerners do interact in groups. Yet the relationships between individual and society differ in Japan and in the West, and the consequences of these differences are important.
Self and Society
Ideas such as self-development and self-discipline, which Westerners
consider endeavors of the individual, are widened in Japan to
include the social context. In other words, the Japanese do not
regard the individual in isolation. They constantly balance individual
aspirations against social requirements, choosing which is more
appropriate in each situation.
Westerners understand that one does not speak in the same way to the school principal or to the boss at work as to one's best friend. Both word choice and freedom of expression differ. But Japanese focus on these distinctions more explicitly than Westerners, and they have specific terms to describe them.
Turning in one's school or work assignments, paying attention to the teacher or supervisor, and obeying the rules against cheating are understood as giri, or social obligations. Relations with one's best friends and one's sweetheart would be ninjo, or emotional ties. Giri means adherence to social constraint, combined with restraint of feelings and self-expression; ninjo means expression of emotion, combined with a lack of social constraint. Each is appropriate at different times, but they can never appear together because they are inversely related. Thus the more giri that is required, the less ninjo that can be expressed, and vice versa.
Japanese, of course, do not always turn in their assignments on time or put forth their best effort in class or at work. It is not easy to obey the constraints of giri. But it is even harder to decide between giri and ninjo in many situations. If one is asked by a good friend for answers during a test, or if one deliberately avoids doing the best work possible in order to keep from outshining associates, then ninjo, the emotional urge to favor companions, comes into conflict with giri, the obligation to society. But if a daughter is asked by her mother to do an errand while entertaining friends at home, then giri, performing an obligation, comes into conflict with ninjo, emotional ties to comrades.
The Japanese consider both giri and ninjo as important for defining the individual. But because of the focus on balancing giri against ninjo within social contexts, correct judgment of the context in which giri should prevail becomes important in achieving selfhood. Thus submitting to giri when one would rather fulfill one's own desires is a mark of maturity, while engaging in ninjo in inappropriate situations is considered selfish and immature.
These examples illustrate that Japanese and Westerners have different perspectives on a universal fact: that human beings are both individual and social. While Americans, for example, generally weigh individual development highly and may value ninjo over giri, Japanese value giri over ninjo, although the constraints of giri admittedly are bothersome to them.
This value difference ties in with another difference in viewpoint. Japanese regard human beings as fundamentally interdependent, and their word for people, ningen, means human beings in relationship with others. They view the individual as part of a collectivity, such as a family or a work group, and see individual development as fostered by the constraints of the collectivity. Americans, on the other hand, generally see social constraints as impeding the individual. The contrast is well illustrated by respective attitudes toward child-rearing. Americans consider a newborn baby physically and socially dependent on others, and they raise the baby to become independent. Japanese consider a newborn baby as independent because it has not yet become a member of society, and they raise the baby to become dependent by becoming a social member.
A number of other concepts in Japanese social life can be related to the giri-ninjo axis. For example the terms omote and ura define an axis of formality versus informality, which works similarly to giri and ninjo. Omote means "front" and ura"back," and they refer to the appearance that one presents to others versus the secrets that one keeps from others but shares with family or close friends. Omote is a formal situation in which appearance is important, as in a wedding ceremony, where bride and groom are specially dressed for the occasion. Ura is an informal, "behind the scenes" situation, where the omote is being prepared. Thus the groom may be exhausted, the bride nervous, and the parents distraught as hectic last-minute adjustments take place. But none of these feelings are conveyed when the participants enter the formal, omote ceremony.
Giri and ninjo can be linked to omote and ura because self-constraint is formal whereas emotional expression is informal. For Japanese, much of social life includes a range of shifts from formal situations where individuality is markedly constrained to informal situations where it is openly expressed. A Japanese omote situation, such as the opening of negotiations for a business contract, may be unfathomable to Americans or may even appear to be insincere; Americans may consider ura more real than omote. But for Japanese, keeping up appearances is as much a part of social reality as recognizing the different reality behind the scenes, so that both omote and ura are equally real.
Mistaking omote for ura, or social formality for acquiescence, has resulted in considerable misunderstanding for Westerners in negotiating with Japanese. Moreover, Japanese may seem to be inconsistent to Westerners, who may mistake a single situation for the way Japanese always are and then become confused by shifts along the rest of the omote-ura axis. But the expression of both self and social situations shifts along the entire axis for Japanese.
Group Organization
The Japanese view of the individual as existing within a collectivitywith
each member considered part of a greater wholeaffects group organization
considerably. Although roles within the group are organized hierarchically,
the collective underpinnings of the group make Japanese hierarchy
quite different from the Western conception of hierarchy as an
authoritarian system of organization. Because a Japanese group
leader, such as a household head, is also part of the whole, his
authority is derived from the collectivity rather than from himself
as an individual. A leader cannot impose personal whim or violate
the collective wishes of the group without facing considerable
ill-will from the other members.
The Japanese group does not have a unitary structure. Rather, each activity performed by the group calls for a slightly different arrangement based on two opposing configurations: a pyramid and a circle. The pyramid, which is hierarchical, is viewed as formal (omote); the circle, which is egalitarian, is seen as informal (ura). Both configurations must be expressed for the group to run smoothly, and so the group shifts constantly between various combinations of the two forms of organization.
In a business work group, for example, the members actually may gather in a circle for morning exercises, then sit at their desks, which are arranged in a circle with the chief at the top. Attending to business requires the members to act as a pyramid, with authority descending from the chief at the apex; but discussion meetings approximate a circle, with each person having a say. Although the pyramid is essential for managing everyday affairs, the key to an efficient group organization is frequent orderly shifts between pyramid and circle. The considerable time and effort that Japanese office groups devote to socializing after work can also be understood as facilitating the circle configuration.
Relationships within a group are far more informal than relationships with outsiders. Moreover, distinctions between informal and formal that coincide with in-group and out-group boundaries are made in a wide variety of communications, including speech, dress, bowing, gift-giving, and amount of self-expression employed. Language parallels social life closely, and one cannot utter more than two words without indicating both degree of formality and deference. Therefore, by watching and listening to strangers communicate with one another, virtually any Japanese can tell whether the strangers are members of the same group and, if they are not, how distant they are.
Although competition usually is not fostered inside a group, considerable competition may exist between groups in the same company as well as between different companies. Thus both intense camaraderie and fierce competition exist in Japanese society, depending on whether one is inside or outside a particular group.
Hierarchy
Because the Japanese individual is considered part of a collective
whole, such collectivities alternate between stressing unity and
differentiating among the group members. The collective unity,
which takes the organizational form of a circle, is egalitarian;
differentiating among the members, which takes the form of a pyramid,
is hierarchical.
Group hierarchy must therefore be understood in relation to group unity. Since the leader has authority over the group, not as an individual but as part of the collectivity like other members, hierarchy is not constituted by authoritarian power. If the leader neglects the members' wishes flagrantly, the members may impede the working process by "slowdowns," behind-the-scenes gossip, and subtle acts of nonconformity.
Hierarchy is multidimensional. It is defined situationally, not by a set of prescribed ranks. In each situation, participants must judge differences among themselves along a number of axes.
Members of the same group define hierarchical difference by how long one has been a group member and by generation, age, and sex. The son who remains in the house to succeed as its head is ranked more highly than his incoming wife, both by length of membership in the household and by sex. Both of the son's resident parents outrank his wife in length of group membership and by generation as well as age. But as time passes the wife's position changes, so that when she is in the older generation she is outranked only by her husband.
Conflicts can easily occur when the ranking elements themselves are opposed, as in the common case of the male who comes into his wife's household as an adopted husband. The major reason for the adopted husband's unhappy domestic situation is that he is male, thus outranking his wife; but she, as an in-group member, outranks him because he is a newcomer. This impasse creates irresolvable conflict in the household.
Hierarchy is an important dimension of behavior between groups, as well as within groups. Judging hierarchical differences in intergroup relationships requires the same kind of ranking. But, in addition, the status of each individual's group must first be taken into consideration. The widespread practice of exchanging name cards allows Japanese to assess the group status of a stranger, in order to use the proper language and demeanor. Having a prestigious company on one's name card gives considerable status to the employee, even if the job is menial.
Individual Character Development
Even the most formal situations contribute to individual character
development, if the balance between emotional expression (ninjo)
and social conformity (giri) is appropriate. Americans often admire
individuals who strive for success against great odds, like the
heroes in Horatio Alger's novels. Japanese too have examples of
"self-made" men and women, but they also consider the
efforts made on behalf of one's group, or the entire society,
as contributing to self-development. The dedication to work exhibited
by the Japanese from early primary school through long hours of
overtime for the company are considered to build individual character.
Performing one's role well, whether as a homemaker or an employee,
is also character-building. Japanese regard as disorderly and
selfish a society in which people seem to express their feelings
too freely and give in to their whims too often.
Because self-development hinges on a balance between one's own wishes and social constraints, conflict can easily arise between the individual's desires and the expectations of parents, teachers, or others in authority. For example, the household successor may want a career in the city instead of carrying on his family's rural enterprise; or a child may not want to study hard after school for many years in order to pass the university entrance examinations. These are examples of classic conflicts between ninjo and giri in modern guise.
It is essential to understand that individuals often do opt for their own wishes in Japanese society. Refusal to attend school is now a significant problem in the Japanese education system, particularly in junior high school. And many household successors follow their own career desires instead of staying home to take over the family business. While such people are not heroes to the Japanese, their behavior usually is regarded tolerantly, as part of human nature. Institutions, such as household and company, are flexibly organized so that a successor who leaves, or a worker who fails to perform, does not jeopardize the existence of the organization.
Social Organization
A close relationship exists between Japanese social and economic organization. Non-Western patterns of social organization may seem incompatible with the high-tech life-styles and industrial development of modern Japan. Yet it is increasingly obvious that Japan's social organization has played a major role in its economic success.
To unravel the apparent contradiction of Japan's modernization and its retention of "traditional" social patterns, one must realize that the traditional patterns are flexible: they can accommodate change. They are also complex, so thatfor exampleindividualism, achievement orientation, and competition can all be fostered within traditional perspectives. Thus present-day social organization is modern as well as Japanese. Although it has undergone considerable change it still is related to historical traditions of the self and social life.