Japanese Features puzzling practice Society and Customs

Is Japan a "Weird" Country? (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1....

When discussing cultural practices (basically embodied in people's behavior) of a
culture, we think it is important to keep perspective of its cultural effects on macro- and micro-levels: the effects overarching individuals, such as those of cultural norms and social change, and how individual persons are affected on an individual basis.

Photo by Daddy  E Photography used under CC

On a macro-level, Japanese cultural norms and technological advancement (or social change) affect Japanese people’s behavior.

For example, because Japanese people are expected to keep quiet on the trains, especially crowed rush-hour trains (i.e., cultural norms), some people had occupied themselves by reading newspaper, magazines and comic books (i.e., people’s behavior).  They sometimes read dirty magazines or comic books on the trains, but this behavior is somewhat tolerated as long as the readers quietly read them.

These days, however, it is very rare that we witness people reading these printed materials on the trains.  Instead, they silently use cell phones, for example, while sending text messages, checking their emails, or browsing.  This behavior change is due to technological advancement by which cell phone has become an excellent tool to get connected to friends, get information, and something more.

On a micro-level, or more precisely on an individual basis, we have to keep in mind that these overarching effects vary among individuals.  Some people are very affected by cultural norms and technological advancement (or social change) while others are not.

Also, personal interest has an influential factor to what cultural norms or technological aspects the person takes in and how to behave.  In the above example again, some people anyway read dirty magazines or obscene comic books on the train even though such a reading practice is not so acceptable in Japan.

They chose to do so against the expected acceptable behavior (i.e., not reading such  magazines and books).  We could say that they are less influenced by what they are expected to behave but pretty adamant in their personal preference.

In another example, some people are very sensitive to technological advancement.  They have a strong interest in it and paying a lot of attention to, for example, new “geeky” gadgets.  Due to their strong interest, they might show certain “geeky” behavior, such as behavior called Otaku.

However, whether they actually display such behavior in public or not is, of course, up to them.  Again, it is a matter of personal preference and choice.  We are not critical of such behavior at all.  However, once their behavior starts getting a lot of attention from other people, as if it were a typical example of Japanese cultural practices, it would definitely create huge misunderstanding.

In summary, we argue that it is misleading if we exaggerate certain groups of behavior and report that they are representative characteristics of Japan and Japanese culture.

Some people who chose to read dirty magazines and books on the train are not representatives of Japanese people. It is just a fact that there are some people like that. Nor are those who show unique or “weird” behavior, or Otaku.  They indeed contribute to interesting and unique characteristics of Japanese culture, but it is not so fair that they have been heavily focused, especially in a distorted way.

Thus, keeping these maco- and micro-perspectives in mind, we would like to shed more light on cultural perspectives and practices in Japan.  In doing so, we would be able to discover what Japanese people take for granted and likely to overlook and what foreigners find unique and interesting.