This is not a news update but a social commentary.
Much has been written recently about Japanese stoicism in the face of the multiple disasters of March. Some explanations as to why they are such stoics have been offered, but in my view most have been unsatisfactory. Here is my two bits on this, for what it’s worth. (I should point out that I am neither a psychologist nor a social anthropologist; but I have lived in Japan for over 30 years and speak Japanese fairly fluently.)
This National Post article, for instance, says stoicism is part of the Japanese culture. This About.com article by the daughter of a Japanese woman says, “it’s the Japanese way”.
What does Japanese stoicism look like? The National Post article gives us some examples:
[S]urvivors in the wrecked northern prefecture are overheard apologizing to rescuers for the inconvenience — surely someone is worse off — and an injured woman saved by a Japanese soldier bows to thank him.
The Japanese are lovers of ritual, and the language is peppered with ritualistic phrases: apologizing for inconvenience caused to others (whether the inconvenience is great, small or close to non-existent) is one of those occasions on which the phrase “go-meiwaku wo (kakemasu)” is used. In daily, non-disaster situations, it works as a kind of flattery: it makes the other party feel good, puts them at their ease, and deflects any possible irritation or animosity that the other party may be feeling. It is one of those drop of social “oil” that the Japanese are so fond of using to grease the wheels of social intercourse. It is the natural thing for the rescued survivors to say: it would just pop out of their mouths.
Linda Lowen in the About.com article writes,
We see subdued women and men on-camera talk about being swept away in the tsunami, husbands and wives and children torn from their grasp by the floodwaters, yet there’s no wild sobbing, no falling apart, no letting go. American reporters have been speculating as to when the Japanese will finally break and openly grieve, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. This is how the Japanese survive.
But why don’t they openly break down? Well, of course they do, even on camera. It’s not like they never show grief. But they do try to hold it in. Why? The National Post article attempts a deeper explanation, though I don’t think it quite cuts to the root: Read the rest of this entry »
Why are the Japanese such stoics? 2
Apr 3
Posted by sheffner in culture and communication | 1 Comment
This is a follow-up to an earlier social commentary post on the subject of Japanese stoicism in the face of the disaster.
In that post, I wrote that a key to understanding Japanese behaviour is their concern for others: what others think and the effect on others of one’s own personal behaviour.
Because of this set of values, the Japanese consider people who act on their own without consulting others as immature, childish, selfish. On the other hand, Westerners tend to see the Japanese as meek, docile, stupidly obedient to authority. It is very difficult for Westerners and Japanese to find a middle ground on this subject.
The following opinion written by a Japanese is about those foreigners who fled Japan soon after the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis:
via Marketing Japan.
Mutual understanding is difficult, perhaps an impossible dream. I am reminded of Kipling’s lines:
(From “The Ballad of East and West”. Kipling spent his early childhood in India before moving to England to complete his schooling, and was intimate with both Indian and British culture.)
Rudyard Kipling, poet, author of "The Ballad of East and West"
Tags: cross-cultural communication, earthquake, flyjin, Japan, Japanese, Rudyard Kipling, social commentary, stoicism