Joshiki

The Japanese Schindler

2010-09-18T18:13:00.001-04:00

As today is Rosh Hashanah, I’d like to write about a man whose actions had an impact on many people’s lives for the better.

Chiune Sugihara was a diplomat in the 1940’s whose bravery saved many Jewish families by giving them transit visas out of Lithuania as German troops were advancing. For me his selfless behavior in helping others in distress without seeking recognition even in later years, reflects many of the positive facets of neo-Confucianism in Japanese culture.

Sent as the vice consul to Lithuania, Sugihara found that hundreds of Jews stood outside of the consulate looking for exit visas to escape German armies that were soon to conquer the country. Ignoring direction from the Foreign Ministry Sugihara began systematically writing visas to anyone who came, allowing many to travel across the Soviet Union to Kobe, Japanese controlled Shanghai and other destinations willing to provide refuge for the desperate families.

With the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union and the inception of hostilities with Germany, Japan was forced to close its consulate and Sugihara prepared to leave his post. In perhaps 35 days including a final all night of work at the hotel and on the train as it was departing, Sugihara managed to hand out visas to thousands of people struggling to escape.

In all between 6,000 to 10,000 people are estimated to have been saved by his courageous actions.

After the war Sugihara was dismissed from the Foreign Service and worked in a variety of odd jobs selling light bulbs door to door in Fujisawa and working as a janitor. In the 50’s his fluency in Russian allowed him to live and work in the Soviet Union for over a decade in total obscurity. Located in 1968 by recipients of his visas, Sugihara was awarded the Righteous among Nations by the Government of Israel and recognized for his humanitarianism despite his own disinterest in perceiving himself as a hero.

For those interested in learning more about this story, PBS has an excellent site for a documentary it aired called “Sugihara, conspiracy of kindness”, and the Visas for Life Foundation works to actively identify survivors and descendents of Sugihara’s visas.

Monuments to Sugihara have been erected around the world including this one in LA’s Little Tokyo, but surprisingly none that I’m aware of in big Tokyo. In a typically Japanese paradox, the bureaucrats who run democratic Japan seem to be uncomfortable with a civil servant who didn’t follow orders while the Right Wing champion him as representative of the unheralded benevolence of the previous military dictatorship.

From the latter perspective Japan is usually thought to have been baited into attacking Pearl Harbor by the US despite its best intentions. However a professor coincidentally named Sugihara makes an intriguing postulate that points the finger at the Japanese Foreign Ministry as the real culprit. According to the professor’s thesis, the indifference to Sugihara in official Japan is but one point in the Ministry’s long campaign of disinformation aimed at the Japanese people to deflect responsibility for its own incompetence.

In actuality the Japanese government of that time had a relatively benign perspective of Jews and saw them as useful in developing its newly acquired colonies and influencing American policy favorably. One set of policy recommendations suggested inviting American Rabbis to visit Japan and highlighting the supposed similarities between stridently monotheistic Judaism and Shamanistic Shinto beliefs (!?). A greatly exaggerated retelling of these unimplemented recommendations can be found in a book called The Fugu Plan which appears to be short on facts and long on supposition.

Back to the Bakufu

2010-08-26T13:53:00.005-04:00

This week’s announcement that China had surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in the world produced an interesting response by Professor Norihiro Kato of Waseda University. Professor Kato posits an Eschersque tableau of the present flowing into past and the young in an aging society, leading the way to the maturity of old age.

Confusingly inscrutable in the oriental manner as this seems, his thesis comfortably rests in the post recession reality of globalization where winners are few and losers are plentiful. For the Professor, Japan’s response to it’s descendency is not simply a repudiation of the post war economic miracle but of the Meiji era’s push onto the international stage and striving for what it considered Japan’s rightful place in the world. One hundred and fifty years later he sees a Japan comfortable in its smallness and seeking its quiescence in inward reflection rather than outward competition.

The model then is the time of the Shogunate or Edo Bakufu, which isolated Japan for 250 years until Commodore Perry’s arrival sounded it’s death knell and ushered in the Meiji era’s transformations. In a self contained political and economic vacuum, Japanese culture and the arts developed in their own manner looking recursively back on themselves, a pattern I’ve mentioned in connection with the Rinpa School of artists.

The professor’s thesis brings up the question of whether its even possible in this age to separate from the global economy and if so what the political ramifications would be. After all the original reformers of the Meiji era such as Katsu Kaishu felt that integration with the world was necessary if Japan was to survive as an independent nation rather than becoming a colony of Western powers, as had befallen 19th century China and India.

Also if growth is not the goal of a society, is decline the logical outcome in people’s minds, making this a setting sun paradigm? In this vein I read a recent article about a village in rural Japan whose residents like many others in the countryside, are all senior citizens. This community however decided to forego the usual push for repopulation by younger migrants from the city and instead hired an American manager to oversee its extinction when the last resident dies.

Elsewhere Professor Kato has discussed the work of artist Takeshi Murakami and how it fits in with Japanese pop culture. I’m curious about his opinion on Murakami’s thesis that Japanese culture lost the virility it had with its defeat in WWII, leading to a preference for imitation rather than innovation and stability to the point of stagnation as a societal goal.

Space, the Final Frontier

2010-01-09T10:09:00.004-05:00

For my 50th post on this blog I’d like to talk about space, or particularly the lack of it in Japan and its effect on the culture. The WSJournal had an article on an innovative business two women have begun in Tokyo capitalizing on the exodus of foreigners after last year’s financial meltdown. In fashionable neighborhoods like Harajuku and Roppongi, they’ve taken vacated apartments and split them into 8-10 smaller living spaces with common facilities for single women.

This is a somewhat new concept for Japanese who are used to self-contained spaces that though connected with the whole are not so openly integrated between public and private spaces. An American resident makes this point in that each person has their own neatly marked kitchen soap container rather than share one communal soap dispenser paid for jointly by all. The personalization of space limited as it maybe though, is an aspect of the Japanese ethos reflected here in the theme oriented decoration that each apartment is subject to.

I experienced this use of space in a beautifully packed bento this past week which showcased each dish in its own little space next to its neighbor and three dimensionally above the rice which acts as a common foundation, eaten with each item.

Japanese gardens are commonly said to represent this idea of space integration and for me this one in Kennin-ji is a great example, as it represents the whole universe through the three fundamental shapes.

The interpenetration of space meanwhile is another well known aspect of Japanese design seen in the movable shoji screen that creates a personal space in the midst of larger areas. In Shoren’in this design is integrated with the outside by having the seating area brought into the garden, while ikebana in the alcoves bring the garden into the viewer’s room. A stream with koi meanwhile meanders through the garden creating a flow in the space.

As my friend is about to move to China for an assignment, I’m looking forward to hearing about the perspectives on space of a large though crowded country.

Take a Bow

2009-11-20T21:17:00.003-05:00

President Obama wrapped up his trip to Asia this past week and raised eyebrows back home by lowering his head dramatically while bowing to the Emperor of Japan.

As with all things in Japanese society, the act of bowing (ojigi) is ruled by the all pervasive yet unstated rules of joshiki, the societal sense of proper behavior in any situation that Japanese possess. The inscrutability of this code for most foreigners leads to gaffes large and small when dealing with people in Japan.
In bowing for instance, the angle, duration and method of the bow are based on a variety of factors related to the relative position of the participants in the social hierarchy. The Emperor being at the head of this pyramid, is subject to and associated with a mind numbing array of protocols too complex for most human beings to grasp. Foreigners are usually not expected to conform to these rules of etiquette though with some notable exceptions.

One such case occurred in 1862 in the Namamugi Jiken or Richardson Affair, when British sightseers crossed paths with the party of the Regent of the Satsuma Han on the Tokaido Highway. Rather than dismount and bow as was expected of them, the Englishman deliberately stayed upright incurring the fatal wrath of Satsuma retainers who killed the Englishmen for their disrespectful behavior.
The resultant bombardment of Satsuma’s capital city Kagoshima by British warships was a factor in forward thinking Samurai realizing that modern military power was necessary for Japan to maintain its independence from Western powers.
In contrast to these incidents, the importance of symbology in Japanese culture was cleverly realized by another American leader in his interactions with the Emperor of his time.

This picture was taken at the first meeting General Douglas MacArthur in his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers and Emperor Hirohito after the war. General MacArthur insisted that the meeting be held at his residence in the Dai Ichi Kangyo building, forcing the Emperor into the unprecedented position of visiting another party and obviating the layers of protocol in the Imperial palace.
At the onset of the meeting, a photographer was brought in to take this picture which was then sent to all newspapers in the country to make the obvious point of the relative power of the participants and their respective countries.

The uniqueness of the Japanese Brain

2009-10-30T23:18:00.002-04:00

A friend recently sent me an interview with Tadanobu Tsunoda, a best selling doctor whose books champion the idea that Japanese brains are unique among humans. For Dr. Tsunoda this is not a function of genetics but rather of linguistics, as he believes that learning Japanese at a young age programs the brain to be left brain centric. In books such as The Japanese brain: Uniqueness and university he discusses how this influences behavior and abilities.

Ontologically this theory is part of a concept called Nihonjinron, which postulates Japanese uniqueness based on several factors. According to Wikipedia these include:

Uniqueness: Japan, its people, culture, ways of thinking, social behavior, language, etc., are unique
This uniqueness of the Japanese is rooted in the distinctive characteristics of the Japanese race or ethnos
Ahistorical essentialism: The peculiarities of the Japanese remain unaltered essentially throughout history, and indeed, it is often asserted, are derived from a prehistorical world
Homogeneity: The Japanese are homogeneous as a people, race, or ethnic community
Language: The Japanese language contains words and phrases that cannot be adequately translated into other languages, demonstrating the uniqueness of the Japanese race.

In interactions with other cultures this aspect of Japanese thought has been coupled with a second idea that Japan should share these unique insights with other peoples who are not privy to such perspectives. In the previous century Japan’s New Religions such as the Omooto movement and its leader Onisaburo Deguchi believed that Japan’s holy mission was to bring enlightenment to the world through its unique link with the divine.

In matters of culture, the expansionary phase of the first half of the century gave rise to a practice of supplanting local customs in lands occupied by Japan such as Korea, Formosa and Manchuria. Japanese arts, crafts and even names were forced onto the native population in what was described as magnanimous gesture. Interestingly this cultural imperialism continues to be heralded as proof of Japan’s benevolent intentions in occupying foreign lands, as a means of protecting Asian neighbors from the oppression of the West while civilizing and modernizing its inhabitants.

In the past decade Nihonjinron has moved into the field of economics according to Christopher Wood in his book “The End of Japan Inc.”. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Japanese economists travelled to Russia to propose unsuccessfully that the country adopt Japan’s “unique” statist model as a superior alternative to the failed ideas of communism and the expectedly failing ideas of Western Capitalism.

This same perspective appears in technology where Japan continues to unilaterally develop its iMode system despite its incompatibility with accepted global standards, due to a belief in its inherent superiority. The inability of Japanese cell phone manufacturers to break into other markets worldwide is difficult to understand from this view, considering how well they fit the needs of the domestic market.

In this vein I read a piece in the Times last month discussing Google Japan’s secondary status in the country behind Softbank Yahoo. Google Japan’s president considers the situation to be another teaching moment where Japan can impart to an otherwise successful foreign concern how Asian markets should be targeted.

Actually I agree with him though from another perspective. Japan’s inwardly focused culture will provide Google not with a blueprint for widespread adoption but rather a template for handling exceptionalism in other equally self referential environments.

We’re #3 … and we don’t care

2009-10-20T23:10:00.003-04:00

Avis Rental Cars used to have a slogan capitalizing on its status as the second ranked company in its industry “We’re #2 and we try harder”. I was reminded of this commercial recently when I read that China will overtake Japan as the second largest economy in the world by next year. This is far sooner than predicted and created the expected celebration in China.

Surprisingly Japanese reacted to this news with apathy and resignation rather than the determination to succeed that characterized Japan’s rise from the destruction of WWII. Why do citizens of Japan no longer care about the loss of their hard won position in the global economy they way that Americans have been anguishing about the possibility of being dethroned in the future ?

One reason I think is the dismal view that Japanese young people have of the future and their low Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) according to studies done over the last ten years. Japanese adults though are also anxious about their future and are uncertain as to how to address the challenges Japan faces. Unlike in the post-war era when the problems were very clear and consisted of how to bring Japan back from total devastation, the country now looks to maintain its prosperous lifestyle in a changing world.

Ezra Vogel’s pioneering work in 1979 “Japan as #1” profiled the country as it entered its greatest period of economic success. That the book’s title now appears ironic and its basic theses such as the flexibility of Japanese workers to changing conditions is suspect shows how much the world has changed for Japan since the economic bubble burst in the early 90’s.

The election of Yukio Hatoyama and the Democratic Party was a vote for change in leadership but not a mandate from the people for the difficult decisions needed to resolve Japan’s economic stagnation. In fact this week the new administration backtracked on one of the signature reforms of Prime Minister Koizumi’s regime, the privatization of the Post Office. This much needed reform was championed by Koizumi’s grandfather when he was the head of the Post Office and finally undertaken in his grandson’s administration only to be revoked by the next reform government to take power.

This illustrates the depth of difficulty in moving the country and its people to address the challenges of a resurgent China and a multi-polar economic future.

My Fair Lady

2009-10-13T22:30:00.002-04:00

The first Japanese vehicles to capture the imagination of many Americans were the Z cars from Nissan. Beginning with the 240Z in 1970, Nissan brought the performance of expensive European cars to Americans at an affordable price. The cars were a favorite of street racers due to their customizability and performance enhanceability. In contrast to English roadsters like the MGB and the Triumph TRs that had relatively small engines, the Z‘s were muscular sports cars with over 2 Liters of displacement and 140 hp.

Called the Fair Lady Z in Japan, from a Broadway visit by Nissan’s President for a performance of “My Fair Lady”, the cars went under the more prosaic name of Datsun Z here in America. There are varied discussion on the Web about why such names reflecting social trends and popular culture are acceptable in Japan but not in the US. Japanese car makers now seem to prefer vaguely Romanesque names that impart a sense of quality across time and space. Utilitarian vehicles like SUVs and trucks do not follow this convention and sports cars many times use combinations of letter and numbers like RX-8, NSX and MR2 to emphasize the technical nature of the product.

As Japanese companies no longer need to combat the stereotype of the boxy econocar prevalent in the 1970’s, it would be appropriate for them to showcase the Japanese-ness of their products with more creative names.

Considering that European companies such as Lotus name cars to reflect an ambiance like Elan and Europa, it would seem incumbent on Japanese manufacturers to follow suit with monikers based on their cultural landscape. As a public service I offer the following suggestions.

1. Haiku inspired sentiments such as the evanescence of life, the incipience of leaves changing color and the sweetness of melancholy.

2. Mythical and legendary figures such as the romantic hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune and the prototypical ninja Sarutobi Sasuke.

3. Place names famous for their beauty such as Nikko and Miyajima.

Alternate Energy in Japan

2009-10-03T16:23:00.003-04:00

I recently wrote about Alternative Energy Vehicles (AEV) being developed by Japanese automobile manufacturers. Following the success of Toyota’s Prius hybrid, the goal is to create plug in vehicles that would be completely electric. If these vehicles become commonplace in Japan they’ll significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from automobiles.

Unfortunately this will also increase the demand for electricity generation from the country’s power plants which predominantly use fossil fuels. Without a concomitant move to alternate energy by Japan’s utilities, the centralization of power generation will not be the revolutionary change it appears to be.

So what is Japan doing now and what are the options for a country which imports 80% of it energy needs ? The first alternative is Nuclear Energy which Japan currently relies on for about a third of its energy needs. Concern about the safety of nuclear plants has increased the scrutiny of new projects but does not seem to be sufficient to prevent a ramp up of nuclear power plants. An English website by Japan’s nuclear industry can be found here.

image from ga3.org

Home to 10% if the world’s volcanoes, Japan could also look to Geothermal Energy to meet the increased demands of its transportation system. Geothermal plants have been in operation for decades but new construction has stalled due to concern over their impact in national parks and onsen communities where the sites are invariably located. According to this site for children Japan is generating

Hydroelectric Power is another natural alternative for a mountainous country like Japan. Unfortunately dams have already been built on almost every conceivable location due to their coincident benefit of providing public works money for rural municipalities and construction companies. The detrimental environmental impact of this effort is still being calculated and it cannot be scaled up to meet future energy needs.

Another potential solution is Solar Energy where Japan has had some success with photovoltaic cells. Unlike in the US where the availability of water for large solar plants is becoming an issue, Japan’s development of photovoltaic cells is only limited by its low energy efficiency and cost performance in comparison to other forms of large scale generation.

Wind Power has been utilized through on and offshore windmills but has a somewhat difficult problem to overcome in that the 10 utilities in Japan do not operate on a common grid. This means that excess power must be stored by the operator raising costs and making the ventures unprofitable to build on a larger scale. Here’s an article from last year that discusses the problem.

As would be expected in Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry coordinates efforts in developing new technologies in this area through an organization called NEDO. They provide very detailed publication such as this one on Energy and Environment Technologies which discusses work on all forms of alternative energy including biomass and wave power.

Obento

2009-09-19T22:36:00.003-04:00

As with may other prosaic activities, Japanese have made an art form out of the lunch box. Obento is the term for the ubiquitous little wooden box lunches seen all over Japan. Making the contents visually interesting and harmonious in multiple facets is an art form practiced by a growing number of people around the world.

bentocrazy.ecrater.com

First there are the containers and dividers taking a variety of shapes from traditional wood and lacquer to animal shapes and complex designs. Next comes the food, which traditionally contains the five basic colors and five basic tastes. In addition the textures should vary as should the type of food.

ilovebento.com

In many instances these requirements fit in with modern ideas of nutrition encouraging the use of colorful green vegetables and antioxidant rich fruits, along with limited portions of the food.

laptoplunches.com

Now comes the interesting aspects of sculpting the items in the food with a common theme such as bunnies or sumo wrestlers or famous cartoon characters. Its amazing to me how much effort people go to to create such edible art that lasts only for a morning before being consumed. This fits a theme in Japanese culture of the fragility of beauty in the world though I liken it more to the art of Christo who creates temporary tableau with material giving some added form to nature.

Naturally some housewives in Japan have gone overboard with their designs to make the most interesting lunch box for their children, as will no doubt occur in the US. On the whole however, as believer in the Bauhaus ethic I see this as another reflection of the innate desire in humans to create art in every day activities, regardless of background or training.

Architecture of old Edo

2009-09-12T22:46:00.001-04:00

There was an article in the Times this week about a town just North of Tokyo that maintains the old architecture of Edo, as Tokyo used to be called in the era of the Shogun.

Kawagoe is a city that invested in the past by refusing to allow train service to come to the city in the Meiji era. This retarded the growth of modern commerce in the intervening years but also made the city an unattractive target for American bombers in WWII, since there were no factories in the town.

The town has many examples of the old storefront homes called kura that used to be prevalent across Japan. According to this beautifully illustrated work, the kura has been a fundamental pattern in Japanese architecture from prehistoric times and evolved through the design of treasure houses in Buddhist temples.

Though I haven’t had a chance to visit Kagaoe, I did have lunch in Nara at a restaurant called Ragamala that fits the pattern of a kura, housed in an old storefront house off the main arcade.

The integrated nature of the kura, functioning as a warehouse, storefront and home was what traditionalists had in mind for the redesign of Kyoto Station in 1997.

In Tokyo itself there’s an old neighborhood I’ve visited that retains a lot of this ambiance just behind busy Ueno Park. Yanaka is an area that’s managed to survive both the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the bombings in WWII to maintain it’s characteristic feudal era charm. The small streets house craft stores selling the traditional mulberry bark paper called Washi. Here’s a store in Osaka that uses the appropriately named website kura.com to sell Washi.

Yanaka is also home to a cemetery famous for its beautiful flowering trees that people visit every spring during cherry blossom time. Both Natsume Soseki, the great Meiji era author and the last Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu are buried here.

Another historical association with shogunal times in the neighborhood is Kannon-ji where two of the members of the 47 Ronin were students. The group met here sometimes to plan their revenge according to a sign in front of the temple.

Politics in Japan

2009-09-05T22:43:00.005-04:00

This past Sunday Japan held nationwide elections with the upstart Democratic Party of Japan winning as expected. This is somewhat of an anomaly in that the rival Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has held power continuously since WWII excepting for a brief period in the 1990s.

Much as Europeans have difficulty understanding America’s two party system, the LDP’s dominance in Japanese politics is hard to fathom for foreigners. The party contains a spectrum political opinions excluding only the extremes of the left and right and from the early days of post war occupation has maintained its goals of stability and prosperity. As the rebuilding of the country from the devastation of war coincided with the desires of the populace, the party consistently won at the polls.

Its success is also due to the LDPs operation as a political machine, much like the old Tammany Hall in New York, though on a nationwide scale. Rather than simply seeking the support of urban dwellers, the LDP has focused on the rural constituency, providing generous support for farmers and villages across the country.

One aspect of this spending, obvious when traversing the countryside, is the ocean of concrete visible as roads, bridges and other public works projects ensuring the financial support of construction companies for the LDP.

Like Tammany Hall, the LDP has been good at providing services to it supporters but bad at evolving to meet new environments due to its opaque decision making and investment in the status quo.

Since the bursting of the financial bubble in the early 90’s Japan has gone through an unremitting period of economic stagnation which the LDP has been unable to address, much to the increasingly anxiety of the citizenry. Meanwhile the ongoing depopulation of rural Japan has reduced the effectiveness of its strategy of patronizing the countryside with public spending in exchange for votes.

Diplomatically the end of the Cold War and the rise of China have created new realities that cast doubt on the usefulness of the American alliance. Analysis of the elections in the US media seems to focus on this issue and social causes of interest in America such as the role of women in politics.

My perspective is somewhat different as I believe that intrinsic social dynamics are behind this rebellion against the LDP’s rule. The goals of stability and prosperity that generations of LDP politicians have espoused have now devolved into stagnation and a sense futility in the country.

Young people are increasingly residing in a marginalized world of part time labor and undefined national purpose. According to a recent study, Japanese teenagers have significantly lower expectations for the future than those in Western countries. As discussed in a previous post the artist Takashi Murakami believes that Japanese Post Modernism is a reflection of this malaise.

The challenge of the new government will be to address these issues while dismantling the beauraucratic and mechanistic approach the government has taken under the LDP. This is complicated by the pervasiveness of the party, as can be seen by the fact that reformist Junichi Koizumi, the first non-LDP Prime Minister and Yukio Hatoyama, the current incoming Prime Minister are both former long time members of the LDP. Hatoyama’s grandfather was actually one of the founding members of the LDP and he like Koizumi, are second generation politicians looking to reform the system while a part of it.

Environmentalism in Japan

2009-08-28T16:07:00.004-04:00

As an island with limited resources Japan's culture has always valued the efficient use of what was available to the society. Unfortunately the environment as a whole was not seen as one of the resources to be managed and an ecological perspective wasn’t part of the general consciousness until the last several decades.

A very thorough discussion of Japanese views on the environment can be found in this book by Washington State Professor W. Puck Brecher.

Following WWII, the country raced to rebuild itself as a modern economy at all costs, allowing pollution to reach unprecedented levels, much like China is doing today. The oceans surrounding Japan became dumping grounds for heavy metals like Mercury and Lead while air pollution made masks a necessity for breathing, in cities like Tokyo.

Fans of the old Toho Studios monster movies may remember Hedorah the Smog Monster, an incarnation of the evils of pollution born in Fuji City, home to many paper mills and its attendant byproducts.

An equally larger than life figure working on the other side to protect the environment over the last forty years is C.W. Nicol, a Welshman who came to Japan in 1962 to study Karate at the Shotokan in Tokyo. Nicol has used his paradoxical position as an outsider to Japanese society who’s also a committed Japanese nationalist and naturalist, to champion ecological causes. Through his many commercials and public appearances Nicol-san has leveraged his fame and notoriety to badger, shame and motivate Japanese companies and bureaucrats to save the environment and stop common practices like the dumping of toxic wastes in forests.

Here’s a good profile of Nicol done ten years ago in Outside magazine that shows various aspects of his personality and his work.

Japan has come a long way from Nicol’s description of the dirt and grime of Tokyo streets and environmental concerns are being addressed seriously. Underscoring this fact, the presumed winners in Sunday’s national elections, the upstart Democratic Party of Japan includes environmentalism as one of the planks of it’s platform.

Alternative Energy Vehicles and their Visual Design

2009-08-21T13:33:00.002-04:00

According to a story in the NYTimes yesterday Mitsubishi and Nissan are attempting to leapfrog Toyota’s dominance in the Hybrid car market by developing electric vehicles for production in the near future. Considering that Japan imports 100% of its oil, a switch to electric cars would help shift the energy problem to power plants where economies of scale would allow more efficient and cleaner means of generation.

Also as Japan is such an urbanized society with a large percent of its population living in and around several large cities, the 90 mile range of these electric cars would be sufficient for most uses. Quiet, clean, small, cost effective and of course cute, these vehicles seem to fit Japanese society’s demands very well. Not to be out done, Toyota is meanwhile attempting to extend its lead in AEVs by developing a hydrogen fuel cell car it hopes to bring to market in the next decade.

How these cars will do in other countries is a question that involves many local issues beyond energy efficiency and lack of pollution. In America for instance, our relative need for space, power and comfort would make widespread adoption of these first generation vehicles impractical. Conversely our abundance of Natural Gas and the well understood conversion process for NG utilization in cars, makes it a preferable solution. Government support seems to be growing for adding natural gas pumps to filling stations especially in the West, initially for long haul trucks and then for cars, as a bridge fuel for the near future.

Another factor in adoption appears to be the visual styling of AEVs according to an interesting study on why the original Honda Fit failed in the US. People were turned off by the Fit’s similarity to the external profile of a normal Honda Civic and preferred the odd styling of the Prius as a public badge of their progressive lifestyle. The question then is how will electric cars and hydrogen vehicles distinguish themselves in the near future from their regressive hybrid or positively prehistoric gasoline powered brethren ?

In terms of visual style I find Japanese vans to be really interesting in their disproportionality of height to width making for an odd profile on the streets. Equally fascinating for me for its shortness was the Smart Car when I ran into it years ago in Italy. When I visualize American cars on the other hand I always think about length and width as the salient features of the profile rather than height.

An American centric AEV then would have to highlight these elements to capture mass appeal. I wonder if it would be possible to apply Le Corbusier’s ideas about the Golden Ratio to resolve this design challenge.

Ponyo and Hayao Miyazaki

2009-08-19T00:18:00.004-04:00

As anyone with small children already knows, Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie “Ponyo” (Gaku no ue no Ponyo) is out in theaters in the US. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid", the film's received rave reviews for it magical atmosphere and childlike wonder at the world around us.

In this film Miyazaki explores themes common to his work at Studio Ghibli on the universe and our place in it. For me these themes include the following:

Nature

In Miyazaki’s conception Nature is a living entity encompassing all plants and animals with the notable exception of man. The beauty of this interdependent system is showcased in his movies and contrasted with its fragility in the face of human exploitation of it.

An illustrative example of this theme is “Princess Mononke” (Mononke Hime), where the title character leads the forest creatures against a small settlement of humans intent on pillaging natural resources without concern for the native inhabitants.

Magic

Coincident with Nature’s beauty is its inherent mystery expressed in diverse and sometimes terrifying manifestations. A beautiful exposition of this theme is in Miyazaki’s early work “My Neighbor Totoro” (Tonari no Totoro)where two young children spend the summer of their mother’s convalescence joyfully exploring the countryside in the company of a variety of magical creatures.

Even when the magic is openly on display as in “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (Majo no Takkyūbin), where young witches learn their profession by delivering parcels on broomsticks, adults are unable to understand the magic in their midst.

Traditional Beliefs

Underlying the modern rational world are traditional elements of Japanese culture that have never gone away in Miyazaki’s perspective.

In “Spirited Away” (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) a menagerie of characters from Japanese folklore and Shinto beliefs make their appearance on screen as guests and workers at the otherworldly resort. At the end of the movie one of the protagonists realizes his true identity as a river spirit and flies of as a winged dragon.

All of these movies are interesting and beautiful, reflecting Miyazaki’s ability to see the world through children’s eyes utilizing the prism of Japanese culture.

Bon Odori

2009-08-15T00:49:00.001-04:00

I had the opportunity this past weekend to attend a Bon Festival, the Japanese holiday welcoming the spirits of one’s ancestors. As the country has become mostly urbanized and secularized, the festival has lost its spiritual overtones and become a cultural practice much like many other traditions from the past.

One part of the festivities I find very interesting are the associated dances called Bon Odori, that vary with the areas of Japan they originated in. The dancers move gracefully to the rhythm of Taiko drums situated on a platform in the center of the stage accompanied by traditional songs called min’yo. Some dances celebrate the professions that villagers practiced like the Tanko Bushi, whose movements are based on coal miners daily exertions while others are more abstract like the Hanagasa Odori, which consists of elegant gestures done using hats decorated with flowers.

I liked the Nippon Daiko where dancers making rhythmic motions with drum sticks as if striking the Taiko while dancing around the platform synchronizing their movements to the drum.

Also despite my inability to appreciate most traditional Japanese vocal arts like Utai or Rakugo, I found these folk songs to be charming even in recordings and hope to hear live performances next time.

Thinking back on the Japanese movies I’ve watched, I can’t remember an instance of a Bon Odori on film except in Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress. There a frenetic dance around a bonfire is performed annually in the province of Yamana, commemorating the evanescence of life and inspiring one of the main characters to realize their own smallness of perspective.

Astro Boy

2009-08-06T14:59:00.006-04:00

This fall a 3D animated movie will be released in America about Osamu Tezuka’s iconic creation, the boy robot who feels human emotions and fights for good. It will be interesting to see how he’s changed to fit 21st century American sensibilities, as he always struck me as so mid-century Japanese.

In many ways Astro Boy’s story overlaps that of other characters, like Pinocchio created by kindly Geppeto to be the son he never had. Here it’s the preeminent robotocist Dr. Tenma who builds Astro Boy to replace the 10 year old son he lost in a car accident. Unfortunately, like the robot boy in Stanley Kubrick’s A.I., Astro Boy is rejected by the parent he loves for his apparent inability to be truly human. Redeemed by another scientist who appreciates his unique humanity, Astro Boy is able to lead a happy and for us humans, useful life protecting people and robots from each other.

As mentioned previously, one of the characteristics of Japanese culture I find fascinating is the recursiveness in its art forms. As perhaps the first modern manga, many of the characters in Astro Boy (including Tezuka himself) appear in other manga and anime, playing different roles while keeping their outward appearance and individual personality. In Tezuka’s manga about the life of the Buddha for instance, the ill fated child named Assaji is from another of Tezuka's manga, playing an indefatigable if villainous character called Hosuke Sharaku, wearing his trademark bandage on his head.

Tezuka even humorously created his own star system much like the Hollywood studios of the 1930s reporting how much each character was paid for appearances in his works.

For Tezuka’s 80th birthday. Google created this very nice Astro Boy theme for its iGoogle portal. If you'd like to watch the old shows in English, you can find the Astro Boy videos on You Tube.

The Japan that can say No … maybe

2009-07-30T12:43:00.002-04:00

For anyone familiar with the late 1980’s, one of the major trends of that era was the growing strength of the Japanese economy and concerns about its impact on the United States.

In Japan, the shifting financial balance led to calls for a reexamination of the political relationship between the two countries and confirmation in people’s minds of the uniqueness of the nation’s culture, seen as the basis for its rise. A somewhat extreme manifesto of this movement was Shintaro Ishihara’s best selling book, “The Japan that can say No” subtitled “Why Japan will be first among equals”.

Co-written by Sony’s Akio Morita, the book created controversy for some of its more outlandish ideas such as the possibility of Japan withholding electronic components for American weapons systems as political leverage. The book also repeated unreconstructed prewar propaganda, such as Japan’s beneficial rule of countries it colonized and its status as the victim rather than the aggressor in the run-up to the war. A good review of the book in on Amazon here.

The reason I bring up this ancient history is because of a situation in Baseball which has some similarities. One criticism of Major League players in Japan over the last several decades has been that they won’t conform to the standards of team conduct expected of them. One reason for this behavior (besides the players belief in the superiority of MLB) is the conviction that the training routines in Japan are not designed for improving performance as much as they are for reinforcing concepts like team harmony and admitting shame for poor play.

In an interesting twist, Boston pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is in the news for refusing to follow the Red Sox rehabilitation program, claiming that all his success in the US so far has been due to the Japanese routines he’s followed. Though the Sox have a well regarded program for pitchers, Matsuzaka says their scientific arguments for their approach don’t take into account his being Japanese. He further states that he won’t change his behavior as he’s fighting for the good of future players from Japan who’ll come to MLB and be ruined by it’s western centric practices.

This is a disturbing interpretation of Japanese conformism as being only to Japanese norms and not that of institutions that the individual has voluntarily joined. Like Ishihara’s discredited theses two decades earlier, success for Japan in the World Baseball Classic doesn’t imply Japanese exceptionalism in a globalized world.

A very different explanation is given in an excellent book on Japanese culture today by David Matsumoto. His work makes the argument that the current generation in Japan are far more individualistic and less interested in group harmony than Americans. Matsuzaka’s behavior is then reflective of a trend in young Japanese from all walks of life and presents a challenge to global organizations looking to integrate them into a group with other cultures.

Ironically it appears that the inculcation of traditional American values like self sacrifice and team play are the necessary factors for success in this environment.

Dogs speaking with accents

2009-07-27T11:36:00.003-04:00

Like all children I learned to express the sounds that animals make through the onomatopoeic words we use to describe them, for example sheep saying “baa” and dogs saying “woof”. Imagine my disappointment upon meeting Japanese people and finding out that this may not be the universal language of animals.

Surprisingly, I was told that animals in Japan speak in their own particular manner with dogs saying ”won won” while pigs far from saying “oink oink” make noises like “bhuu bhuu” ( sorry no Dr. Doolittle I, in transliterating animal sounds). Was this another point of Japanese exceptionalism, perhaps brought on by the aforementioned Evolutionary Biogeography or could our universal theory be wrong ?

Much like if the laws of gravity were inapplicable in some part of the earth, this type of discontinuity in scientific laws is always of interest to me. So I determined to make research in this matter one of my priorities on my trip to Japan. After multiple visits to investigate this phenomenon, I can assure the reader that no such anomaly exists and animals in Japan speak in the same global language we’ve codified so well in America.

The only rational explanation therefore is that Japanese are unable to understand the true sounds that animals make due to the limitations of their phonetic system, which has only thirteen consonants and five vowels.

Interestingly sound effects are also expressed differently in Japan as anyone who reads manga can tell. When a car takes off quickly rather than “zoom”, it sounds like “hyu-n” and punches land not with the canonical “pow” or “wham” but with noises like “baki !” or “don”. For those interested in further research on this topic, this blog has a great collection of sounds found in manga.

I’ve been looking for some academic work in this area but outside of references to a missing work by Professor Whitman of Cornell called “Chit-chat among Japanese Farm Animals", I can’t find any source material I can pass on. So in true academic fashion I’ll consider this to be an exercise left to the reader.

Japanese phones and the Galapagos Syndrome

2009-07-22T09:51:00.003-04:00

When I visited Japan a decade ago I was amazed by the functionality and superior design of Japanese cellphones and wished I could take one home. This past year I had a very different experience in Tokyo as I found the phones to be uniformly similar and impractical for the business user.

Why have Japanese manufacturers like Panasonic and Sony failed to evolve in this field as they have so successfully in other consumer electronics ? A professor at Keio University, Takeshi Natsuno, has been pondering the same thing labeling this phenomenon “The Galapagos Syndrome”. In a NYTimes article this week, he considers the problem to be due to the companies’ focus on the unique demands of the domestic market, making them incapable of understanding the needs of the worldwide consumer.

Extending Professor Natsuno’s theme, I’d posit this as an example of Evolutionary Biogeography, a field pioneered by Darwin’s contemporary Alfred Russell Wallace. In his revolutionary work on islands, Wallace conceived the idea of independent development of ecosystems based on geographic compartmentalization. Applying this theory of natural selection to social and economic dynamics is an admittedly speculative though interesting exercise.

In Japan cellphones have followed the dominant design paradigm of the society, highlighting compactness and functionality tailored to the needs of the general consumer rather than the business user. Smartphones with large screens and physical keyboards like the Blackberry are the fastest growing segment of mature markets like the US but are nonexistent in Japan. Interestingly the iPhone, though wildly popular elsewhere, is not very successful in Japan as it fills a niche of personal Smartphone that’s uninteresting to consumers.

Functionally Japanese phones are packed with social and interactive features such as GPS and high resolution cameras but don’t seem to provide the ability to synch with MS Office or VPN into a network.

Architecturally the phones are tightly coupled with the underlying layers of the network allowing a very rich portfolio of services though conversely making them difficult to translate to other environments. NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode, partly developed by Dr. Natsuno, is proprietary to Japan and needs to upgrade to the evolving 4G standards in other countries such as LTE (to continue the analogy, LTE stands for Long Term Evolution).

The close integration of the different aspects of the environment from handsets to network to content providers is not easily replicable in other countries leading Professor Natsuno to make the quintessentially understated Japanese remark that “outside of Japan, the i-mode is different”.

In contrast, the chaos of the US market seems to indicate a primitive stage of development from his perspective though I would characterize it as biodiversity in an adaptable biogeographic ecosystem.

Truth and Reconciliation of Japan's past

2009-07-15T17:52:00.003-04:00

I recently watched a discussion with Howard Bix, the noted Japanese scholar and author, discussing his thesis that Emperor Hirohito was actively involved in Japan’s policy of aggression against its neighbors. He further believes that the fiction of the Emperor being a figurehead used by the military, was a deliberate stratagem practiced by Hirohito to protect his position and supported by successive Japanese governments in order to maintain stability. In grasping for power behind the scenes while publicly appearing uninvolved, Hirohito followed the precedent of many Emperors in Japanese history, most famously perhaps, Go Shirakawa in the 11th Century CE.

Professor Bix’s research for this book led to his conclusion that as necessary for stability as this deception may have seemed at the time, it’s now become an impediment for Japan in its efforts to reconcile itself with the rest of Southeast Asia.

Illustrative of the existing level of fiction regarding the history of WWII is Air Force Chief of Staff Toshio Tamogami’s claim last year that Japan was forced in to the war by America and that it’s aggression helped to create the global drive for racial equality (!). That military and civilian leaders openly make such preposterous claims shows the lack of introspection prevalent in the government and makes it impossible for Japan to assume its necessary role in stabilizing Asia.

This deception also denigrates the sacrifices of dissidents in Japan during the 30’s and 40’s who protested the government’s militaristic policies and suffered at the hands of the fearsome Kempeitai, the Japanese Gestapo. One such hero was Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese Schindler, who worked tirelessly to save Jews in Lithuania from being turned over to Nazi authorities. Mr. Sugihara is far better known in Israel and America than in his native land where his courage and humanitarianism should be extolled.

In addition the dire conditions of Japanese civilians caught in the maelstrom of modern war has not been sufficiently understood outside of the country and is discussed infrequently at home. The suffering of the populace from starvation and relentless bombing of the mainland after 1944 occurred at the same time that a generation of young men were being annihilated on the battlefield.

A poignant and deeply troubling dramatization of this history can be found in Isao Takahata's Hotaru no Haka ( Grave of the Fireflies ) reviewed by someone on Amazon as the best movie you'll never want to see again.

Maximizing ROI in Japanese literacy

2009-07-12T20:19:00.002-04:00

To become literate in English requires learning only 26 letters, but Japanese involves considerably more work.

To begin with one has to learn two phonetic alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, each with 52 characters. Then there’s Kanji, the simplified (somewhat) Chinese pictograms where each character represent a word, an idea or a sound. Educated adults should know at least 3,000 of these general characters along with those used for specific areas of life.

To make things even more complicated for foreigners all three alphabets are used together, sometimes in the same sentence even the same word.

Learned by children in a prescribed schedule over years of schooling, Kanji for non-Japanese adults involves a significant investment of time and effort. So what would be the best way of spending this time to learn kanji ?

An approach I’ve been trying is to focus on the most common words and thereby get the most return for the time invested. As an example take the character

山

pronounced Yama, meaning “mountain” and derived from an abstraction of three mountain peaks seen at a distance. Yama is a very common word and one that’s relatively easy to read and write. Another ubiquitous character is

中

pronounced Chu or Naka, meaning “middle” from a representation of an arrow piercing the middle of a rectangular target.

Combining these two characters together makes the word:

中山

pronounced Nakayama, meaning “middle of the mountain”.

Considering Japan’s mountainous topography, learning this word allows you to now write the family name of millions of Japanese in all walks of life and thousands of places across the country.

You’ll note that I’ve not only found common pictograms but also ones that are relatively easy to write. Drawing and memorizing thousands of kanji unfortunately involves some very difficult characters that, though simpler than their Chinese counterparts, are far more complex than the Latin alphabet. For those interested in software development, this complexity in representing Japanese characters on screen necessitates the use of Double Byte Character Sets, allocating twice the space needed for each letter in the Latin alphabet.

All three of these alphabets are undoubtedly artistic and practicing them can be a rewarding art form in itself. This book besides showing beautiful calligraphy done by the author also discusses the aesthetics of the characters and their connection to Chinese painting.

Modern designers like Katsuichi Ito have taken the characters and shaped them to their needs creating interesting logos and representations from the letters.

Kanji itself has many historical and cultural dimensions as well representing the ideas and world views of East Asia over the last several millennia. Interestingly the composition of some of the words have been changed in recent history due to their cultural or racist connotations.

Shakespeare in Japan

2009-07-06T22:48:00.003-04:00

Since 1889 translations of Shakespeare’s works have appeared in Japan along with interpretations of his plays through the prism of Japanese Arts. Many of the early adaptations were based on the well known abridged versions of the stories by Charles and Mary Lamb, though complete translations were becoming available.

Whether in plays, the puppet theater called Bunraku or Kabuki, Shakespeare’s stories of human drama resonated with people not only because of their universal appeal but also due to their affinity to themes of Japan’s recent feudal past. Hamlet and Macbeth were particularly popular dealing as they did with topics such as the duty of revenge and the lust for power.

In movies many people are familiar with Kurosawa’s retelling of King Lear in Ran (“Chaos”) but I actually prefer his earlier retelling of Macbeth called Kumo no Sujo (“Throne of Blood”). The literal translation “Cobweb Castle” more accurately reflects the movie’s storytelling style, rooted in traditional themes of Japanese horror such as the use of ambiance rather than direct action.

The ever changing dynamics of human conflicts are dwarfed by the ever present malignancy of nature and the castle is simply an island of human endeavors in the ocean that is the fog enshrouded Cobweb Forest.

The evil spirit that forecasts the future of Macbeth and Banquo in the forest is another traditional element of ghost stories, the yurei, a vengeful ghost that seeks to create dissension in the living. As the Lady Macbeth character moves inexorably towards psychosis the implication seems to be that she’s possessed by this spirit and used to destroy what men have built, returning the area to its primeval state.

Noh is another prominent influence in the movie, beginning with the opening sequence where chanting reminiscent of Utai (the recitative background for Noh) is sung to establish the setting. The key role of Lady Macbeth meanwhile is established as one of the standard roles in Noh called "Shakumi” through her makeup and mannerisms.

As in the previous discussion of Cyrano de Bergerac, this refraction of Western literature through Japanese artistic paradigms invigorates the movie with a uniquely vibrancy and makes it my favorite version of Macbeth on screen.

The influence of India on Japanese culture

2009-07-02T10:05:00.002-04:00

I was wandering around Nara years ago and unexpectedly ran in to one of the most iconic of Indian symbols, the lion pillar of Emperor Asoka. Set in the four corners of India in the 3rd Century BCE to spread Buddhist law, the lions are a continuing symbol of modern India. Their somewhat incongruous appearance in this ancient capital of Japan is due to their presentation by the Indian government to commemorate the 15ooth anniversary of the arrival of Buddhism in Japan.

Nara far more than Kyoto is affiliated with Indian Buddhism as can be seen in Todai-ji, whose interior reflects the architecture of Indian Temples I’ve seen, though conceived in wood rather than stone. Fittingly, the consecration of the DaiButsu at this temple in 752 CE was performed by a South Indian monk named Bodhisena.

According to this interesting paper by Dr. Hikotaro Furuta Indian influence extends beyond Buddhism to Shinto Gods like Daikoku and Benten Sama who have become identified with Indian deities. He also posits that Sanskrit words have migrated to Japan as in the case of the Biwa, the Japanese lute, being named for the classical Indian stringed instrument, the Veenai. For those contemplating such ethnographic connections while touring Nara, I’d suggest lunch at the previously mentioned Ragamala, an Indian music themed restaurant situated in an old Japanese house.

Of course the most ubiquitous Indian persona in Japan is Daruma, whose visage is seen everywhere due to the influence of Zen in Japanese culture. Zen more so than most other sects of Buddhism has kept an Indian flavor and Daruma as its front man, is ever present in Japan as he’s absent in his native land.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Karei”, the ever popular spicy sauce in common dishes such as Karei Spaghetti and Karei Rice. Brought to Japan by the British as their interpretation of Indian spices, what they called “curry” has after some localization become another staple of the Japanese diet due to its distinctive flavor.

Japanese Tourism Posters

2009-06-29T19:59:00.002-04:00

While in some countries you can see movie posters on every wall and others have slogans of revolutionary movements, Japan tends to have beautiful posters of temples and museums in store windows and train stations.

In the case of temples, as religion has become less important for most Japanese, the cultural practice of seasonal tourism has conversely become a more important source of revenue. Hence the posters that extol the beauty of a temple in the spring and fall, especially at night time when lighted. This is one is from Shoren-in, a small temple in Higashiyama in the Eastern part of Kyoto.

A more famous temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizudera is shown dramatically in relief against the Kyoto skyline. To see this view at night would involve a trudge through the paths on the other side of temple and a climb up the hill to look back.

I actually prefer to visit the temples during the day in natural light before the crowds arrive for the evening though this poster from Nara illustrates how beautiful the temples can look under the night sky.

Another common subject is the storehouse of treasures that temples have gathered over the centuries and periodically put on display to the public. This one is for an exhibition of treasures from Miidera Temple, one of the largest temple complexes in Japan.

Museums and historical sites, a designation that covers almost every town in the country, have posters that highlight their unique features. This scenic poster is for a train ride to see the Maples changing colors during the Koyo Matsuri festival.

Museums are always showcasing their holdings and special exhibits with posters such as this one on artifacts from the time of the great 9th century scholar Sugawara no Michizane.

I like this very simple and dignified poster for Raku pottery showing a cup used in the Tea Ceremony.

One of the interesting sights for foreigners in Japan is the sight of women in traditional garb at temples and historical locations, something the Kimono Passport promotes through reduced admission for those visiting in kimonos.

The Fujiwara Family

2009-06-26T15:27:00.004-04:00

I’ve always read about the Heian Era being a time when aristocratic families ruled Japan, chief among them the Fujiwara. As the members of this family were prominent not only in politics but also in culture and the arts, I went searching for their legacy in Japan.

The first person I ran across was the statesman Fujiwara no Michinaga, who was not only Regent but also grandfather to three Emperors. On the grounds of the current Imperial Palace in Kyoto I found a sign marking the spot where Michinaga composed a famous poem in 1017 during a moon viewing party. The poem called Mochizuki no Uta compares his stature to that of the moon:

This world, I think,
Is indeed my world.
Like the full moon I shine,
Uncovered by any cloud."

The Fujiwara practice of marrying Emperors to the female members of their family ensured Michinaga’s descendents continued supremacy in the government until the rise of the Samurai class overshadowed the old aristocracy.

Going West to Uji, I entered the world of the Genji Monogatari, a novel whose protagonist (perhaps modeled on Michinaga) and author Murasaki Shikibu were themselves Fujiwara. Uji is also home to Byodo-in, the temple built by Michinaga’s son Fujiwara no Yorimichi, a replica of which can be seen in Oahu.

This postcard by the way shows Byodo-in framed in wisteria blossoms referring to the Fujiwara name which means “field of wisteria”, as explained to me by a helpful volunteer in the Nara Tourist office.

Nara is where the beautiful Fujiwara family shrine of Kasuga Taisha is located in a forest where deer roam freely. The pathways have hundreds of stone lanterns that are lighted several evenings in the year which must be enchanting.

In modern times the descendent of this illustrious family that most people are familiar with is the actor Fujiwara Kamitari. Though sharing the name of the founder of the clan Fujiwara no Kamitari, this actor ironically appeared regularly in roles as the truculent peasant in movies like Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress.