Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Japan is truly a bizarre country, the more you live in it.  Obviously, for a Japanese citizen, they feel things are unquestionably normal, although certain paradoxical even oxymoronical elements do surface periodically.  The bizarre for me is the ultra-conservative attitude here.  Maybe that's too unspecific.  But I cannot put a better term for my feeling here.

When I say ultra-conservative, I don't mean necessarily how guys wear suits and ties, even in blazing hot summer days.  I don't mean the so-called respect for the elderly here.  I don't even mean the government.

What I mean by ultra-conservative is the absolute desire not to change things.  I mentioned the notion of Japan being in a sort of time stasis where you feel that things don't change in some ways.  When I came here, I did notice physical changes being made all around me.  New buildings, new construction, new keitai, new cars, new dress trends.  But to me that's all very superficial.  Those are core values built into a system that are meant to move forward.  It's like the body where if you damage your skin, cells eventually come to rebuild the damaged area.  So when a design of a car no longer is supportive of the environment, a new change is required.

But I still think there's more to this than meets the eye (Transformers!). What I mean by things not changing, is that one's life here once defined does not change.  You practically are trapped at your job unless you want to perform something risky and leave.  You will be branded and threatened with your livelihood and thrust into a different order.  If you're a woman, you cannot change your role.  You have no freedom in how you're supposed to perceive yourself.  If you're a man, you're expected to bring home the paycheck, act "manly" and virile with all the stereotypical denominations of masculinity (which is localized here as being something like Kim-taku). 

What I'm getting at is your definition of your existence becomes immutable.

People here require categorization.  Things that defy categorization present a threat to the stability of this culture.  Anything presenting that level of threat is quickly thrown down.

Take for instance Horie-mon.  It's hard to say whether or not his dealings were fraudulent.  It's known that businesses by nature are fraudulent and that people who rise fast probably utilize fraudulent practices.  However, his tactics in going against the norm (probably not giving out shares to other bottom feeders and the elderly wishing to leech off the young)  assured him only his business demise.  It's clear that if society valued the "new way" of his business handling, they would've naturally favored and perhaps even protected his dealings.  Instead, he was defamed, emasculated, and thrown out as a clear message to the young of the Japanese society to not rock the establishment.

Certainly, other countries see something similar in their own.  But I have not lived in such societies and feel trapped to a higher extent in Japan than anywhere else that I've been.  I feel that while opportunities do exist, you have to be extremely cautious about taking them and carefully wend your way around to make it to a higher level.

Part of this thought comes from a discussion I had with my friend on my keitai.  We were discussing about how employers here, especially in large financial institutions, look down upon job hopping.  While it is true that many industries frown on this, Japan probably is one country that despise this notion.  The core element is that a person hopping is clearly unstable and disrupts the motion of definition in an organization.  In order to properly job hop, you need to have significant reputation to be worthy.  If you were a Bill Gates, Brad Pitt, or some other iconic figure, there would be no questions.  However, if you're small without a reputation, you have no significance and cannot risk the movement.

The other thing is that once you engage in a form of lifestyle here, say you live in an apartment, it's very difficult to move around.  Work prevents most people from having any form of life so you'd be hard pressed to switch around easily.  Add the high cost of moving (key money, deposit, agent fees, guarantor, moving, shipping) and you have little chance to succeed unless you're part of a system which provides that level of support.

It's funny now that I suddenly realize more and more about why people constantly question my move here.  Everyone wonders why work in a finance company or live in Japan?  I think it's more of a warning than a question loaded into that statement.  I think many Japanese, unless they're some high up executive, feel trapped on this tiny island.  In their hearts, they realize that Japan is nothing more than a superficial world.  People live vicariously and through images rather than direct expression.  However, the culture does not tolerate freedom of expression,  even though things aren't explicitly enforced.  People live here through unstated standards.  Enforcement comes only when someone makes an arbitrary call.  You feel things are more subjective and people are pressured to make judgment calls but are not ever comfortable taking the responsibility of that decision making process.

This is the world that traps me while I'm here.  I'm starting to see why though....