JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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1
Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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3
U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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MASSWIPE
"I honestly think that one of the big problems for many Japanese is that they are products of the 70's and 80's. They grew up with a father who was and endless supply of money, and a mother who waited on everyone hand and foot."
Yasukuni, this is correct and close to the point I always make about Japan's kozukai system: It worked well when Japanese companies were flush with cash and thus able to provide their male breadwinner employees with generous perks, benefits, expense accounts, etc. Thus, the average salaryman at that time didn't mind forking over his entire base salary to his wife, because his company more than made up for it with other benefits that he could use for fun (i.e. drinking, carousing, etc.). In other words, the Japanese salaryman nobly sacrificing for the greater good of his family was a myth, and the end of the good times have revealed that truth. Likewise, the end of the gravy train has shown Japanese housewives not to always be the dutiful managers of the household, sacrificing everything for family.
The implications for Japan's once tight-knit, so-called "managed society" (kanri shakai) are bleak in the short term. With money tight, fewer and fewer Japanese children of the good times of the 70s and 80s will be able to agree on how to manage family finances. But perhaps the children of the less prosperous Heisei Period will find it easier to make do with less.
Posted in: NEET spouse in the house not such a neat arrangement
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MASSWIPE
If as you claim, Cleo, that there is so much diversity and eclecticism among Japanese couples regarding the handling of family finances, then why does something called the "kozukai system" even exist? Why do so many Japanese housewives, it seems, have total control over family finances, and why do you defend it so passionately here every time it comes under attack?
Also, while the myth of Japanese racial/ethnic homogeneity is just that, it's a bit of a stretch to imply that in Japan there simply exists no standardized way of doing certain things like handling family finances. Clearly, during Japan's halcyon days (I'd say 1960-90) a rigidly defined system and division of labor emerged between the sexes. And while there are far more interracial/international couples in Japan today, it is again a bit of a stretch to imply that the Japan of 40-50 years ago--when the kozukai system really took root--did NOT regard an orthodox Japanese household as consisting of a Japanese husband, Japanese wife, and their Japanese children.
Posted in: NEET spouse in the house not such a neat arrangement
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MASSWIPE
Cleo, judging by the general tenor of comments about Japan's kozukai system, I'd have to say that you're in a minority among Westerners who understand and accept it. And, not being Japanese yourself, I don't think any arrangement worked out between you and your husband about finances can be seen as representative of orthodox Japanese households. I'd venture to guess that the number of middle-aged married Japanese women who have never contributed towards paying a single month's rent or mortgage payment (all the while controlling the family finances), and the number of middle-aged married Japanese men who have never washed dishes or done laundry (or even set foot in a supermarket), is extremely high.
And again, for a Westerner, it's just jarring to meet people who've had such one-sided life experiences. I'm not saying that the Western system is better, just that most Westerners can't comprehend how Japanese society operated (very, very well, one should add) according to such a rigid division of labor from the 1950s until the whole system--dependent on good times and excess cash--began coming apart at the seams in the 1990s.
Posted in: NEET spouse in the house not such a neat arrangement
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MASSWIPE
Japan's kozukai system (whereby the male breadwinner hands over his monthly salary to the housewife, who manages all finances), is incomprehensible and bizarre to Westerners. And the reason for this is that the kozukai system is predicated on what is, I think, an unsustainable quid pro quo between the sexes: The idea that women have the right NOT to work outside the home while men have the right NOT to do any domestic household chores. This absolute, rigid division of labor prevailed throughout Japan's halcyon days in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but it started breaking down after that. The plummeting birth rate and the end of the salaryman's glory days as a hostess bar-hopping, well-paid lifetime employee probably account for the breakdown.
Posted in: NEET spouse in the house not such a neat arrangement
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MASSWIPE
Hikozaemon: You're making some good points, but I'll repeat: It's alarmist hyperbole to warn that Kan's premiership will result in another 50-year run of power for the LDP. You seem to be assuming that the LDP is the default ruling party of Japan, owing to some innate, immutable qualities rooted in national culture. But the LDP is a creature of the Cold War (1955, remember?), and it's still around because of the dream some Japanese have for rekindling a mini-Cold War against China and North Korea. But without American willingness to treat China like the USSR, it won't happen. The LDP is permanently nostalgic for the Cold War era of bipolar stability and GNP-ism. It has no vision for the future. No way can a party like stay in power for 50 years.
And it's also overkill to characterize the 2010 Upper House results as a slaughter for the DPJ. If you want to see a slaughter, look at the 2007 Upper House results and how it affected the LDP.
Well, Abe actually should have stayed in office longer, not because the man's politics were good, but because it was pathetic and irresponsible of him to bow out after just one year in office, and just after having reshuffled his cabinet. It set a terrible precedent.
The real problem here is Japan's screwy system in which the Upper House has actual powers to block legislation (like the US Senate), but within the framework of a UK-style parliamentary body where the Lower House is supposed to exercise supreme powers. The system is ill-suited for a UK-style, 2-party regime that lacks a separately elected chief executive, and therefore it needs to be reformed. These are not reasons for giving Japan its 7th prime minister in less than 5 years.
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MASSWIPE
"With Kan at the helm, the LDP is practically guaranteed another 50 years in power come that time."
Alarmist hyperbole. The LDP is a shell of its former self, a relic of the Cold War era consensus on national security and economic growth (no such consensus exists on either issue now). The electoral system is now tilted in favor of two alternating and competitive parties, with 300 out of 480 Lower House seats elected in single-member districts (as opposed to the multi-member districts that prevailed until 1994). Koizumi's charisma extended the length of LDP dominance by a few years, but those days are gone.
Therefore, it's impossible to imagine the LDP (or any other party) in power nonstop for 50 years under such circumstances. This is because the structure of the Japanese political system is fundamentally different from what prevailed until 1994. Many people familiar with Japan believe that the country's "culture" is an overpowering force that trumps everything, including structure, but I don't buy that.
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MASSWIPE
"I don't get it."
I don't understand why you don't get it, Hikozaemon. People don't have a boner for Kan, but it's been embarrassing to watch Japan change prime ministers every year since 2006. To do so again, just a month and a half after the March 11 disaster, would look ridiculous. Sorry to say so, but the situation has been reduced to that level--a desperate wish to see a Japanese PM stick around in office beyond 12 months rather than "cut and run" at the first sign of trouble.
You refer to the nature of Japanese politics as if it's some innate, immutable quality of the nation rooted in culture. But all of the reforms since 1994 have aimed to change the country's politics, and those reforms have succeeded to a certain degree (emergence of a viable second party, reduction in power of factions, more power invested in the PM's office, etc.). The people who yearn for the days of proportional-style factionalism in politics need to adjust their expectations.
Lower house elections don't need to be held until August 2013, and they really shouldn't be held until then.
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MASSWIPE
"Not sure how free trade was planned"
Well, that's surprising. I suppose you think "free" trade spontaneously emerged as a "natural" form of barter and exchange among humans. It did not. There is no "free" trade without government involvement. A cursory look at 19th century British economic history will show that.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
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MASSWIPE
"And I wouldn't touch European style healthcare if they paid me let alone the other way around. I'll take my high deductible and instant gratification."
Are you an American without a passport who can't locate France on a map? Or have you actually been treated for an ailment at a hospital in Europe? A pathological, vitriolic hatred of government is understandable if you're a citizen of Iran or Burma, but I find such attitudes among Americans incomprehensible.
How can anybody believe that the "free" market is a natural, sentient being whose dictates must be obeyed? What a bizarre thing to believe. Deregulation is a misnomer and laissez-faire was planned, end of story.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
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MASSWIPE
RIP Taylor Anderson
Posted in: Missing U.S. teacher's body located in Ishinomaki
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MASSWIPE
This is a ridiculous, arbitrary way of trying to dismiss the unprecedented demonstrations in Egypt. If at least half the voting age population of a country isn't demonstrating, then the demonstrations have no legitimacy? Give me a break, and think about the courage needed to confront the forces of an undeniably brutal, American-backed dictatorship.
Yes, you armchair MIddle East analysts are all correct: Egyptians aren't unhappy because of state repression, corruption, and a dead-end economy; they're unhappy because they can't cross the Sinai Peninsula to fight Israelis and destroy the Jewish state.
Posted in: Egyptian army moves to stop assault on protesters
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MASSWIPE
Don't know why anybody is surprised by this publication in Shukan Post, considering that large numbers of Japanese are undoubtedly convinced that in 1941, the US decided to coax Japan into bombing Pearl Harbor (via an oil embargo) to drum up American support for entry into World War II, as all of the Keynesian economic pump-priming of the previous 8 years under President Roosevelt had "failed" to bring about economic recovery. This is an interesting case in which Japan-loving conspiracy types and anti-Keynesian economics right-wing types in the US can find common ground: Of course the New Deal failed, so that's why the US just HAD to enter World War II and therefore provoke Japan!
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MASSWIPE
"Both are mainly export-oriented economies."
It really is time to retire the idea that Japan has an "export-oriented" economy, with the implication being that it is export-dependent. It's not, as a quick look at any comparative chart showing exports as a percentage of GDP will show.
The author also conveniently ignores that fact that in order for Japan to follow the Korean "model" of economic recovery, the Japanese economy would have to crash, Tokyo would have to accept an IMF bailout, Japan Inc. would have to be dismantled according to IMF demands, foreign "vultures" would have to be allowed to swoop in unimpeded (such as when GM took over Daewoo in Korea), and the Japanese would have to adjust themselves to levels of social dislocation not seen since the early postwar era, with the suicide rate reaching even higher levels than now.
Finally, Japan's hierarchically minded political and economic leaders would have to jettison more than 150 years of modern history (not to mention centuries of premodern history) and start looking "up" to Korea rather than looking down on it. Could happen but unlikely.
Posted in: South Korea could be model for Japan’s economic development
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MASSWIPE
MisterCreosote, maybe long-term job security for all workers--whether they are employed in the public, private, or "third" sector--has something to do with it as well.
Your obsession with demonizing government and therefore making the tiresome distinction between the "efficient" private and "inefficient" public sectors (what is "efficient" about a corporate CEO in America making 1000 times his average employee?) isn't relevant in a country that prizes corporate social responsibility and harbors deep suspicions of American-style "shareholder" capitalism.
Posted in: The butterfly in the subway
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MASSWIPE
Nice to see people in, of all places, the land of Adam Smith and David Ricardo taking to the streets and making their feelings clear. Maybe the UK government will now rethink its policies. So refreshing in contrast to, for example, the typical brainwashed reaction of Americans who were long ago conditioned to shrug their shoulders and say "The market is supreme and we must obey its dictates" even when private sector health insurance companies jack up premiums by 40% to put more money in the hands of shareholders. All this talk about the supremacy of "natural" laissez-faire economics is nonsense. Laissez-faire was planned.
Posted in: Thousands of UK students protest tuition fees hike
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MASSWIPE
Dean, seriously, you should be thankful that "inflexible" service convinced you to stop eating at McDonald's in Japan. You should give up the golden arches elsewhere, too.
No doubt, food establishments in Japan are pretty tight with supplies of drinks, condiments, etc and it can make for a difficult adjustment for foreigners, and not just for big mac-eating Westerners. For comparison's sake, just go to Korea and see how much free food (in the form of side dishes) you get at restaurants there. I'm sure Koreans in Japan are initially dumbstruck to realize they have to pay for all those side dishes at Korean restaurants in Japan.
Posted in: In Japan, the customer is not king
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MASSWIPE
The health insurance system in Japan is good because it is, to a large extent, decommodified. This doesn't mean there are no cash registers in the hospitals and clinics (as is the case in the UK), but considerable government regulation ensures that the vagaries and excesses of shareholder capitalism do not become a key factor in the provision of what is, after all, a necessity and not a commodity. And there is also the convenience of the National Health Insurance system, which makes it easy to get treatment at virtually any health care facility in Japan.
Posted in: What do you think of the health insurance system in Japan?
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MASSWIPE
"Racing the Enemy" was first published about 5 years ago. Why did this article present it as a newly published book?
Anyway, the "Reds in Manchuria caused Japan to surrender" argument has gained ground in recent years as a way of discrediting the impact of the atomic bombings. But would Japan still have surrendered on August 15, one week after the Soviet declaration of war, even if the US had never carried out those two atomic bombings?
Who knows. Even without the atomic bombings, perhaps Japan would have emerged from the war as the unitary, intact country that it is today. Or perhaps Japan would have held out until September 15, after Sapporo had been taken by the Red Army and renamed New Stalingrad.
Posted in: Historians rethink key Soviet role in Japan's defeat in WWII
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MASSWIPE
On and on this debate goes, as it will for decades. In the "real world" however, the events of 2 years ago did conclusively demonstrate something: that the revisionist "Toshio Tamogami" view of modern Japanese history--one that views Japan as an honorable, chivalrous practitioner of "altruistic" colonial rule in Korea/Taiwan and "liberator" of Southeast Asia from Western domination before "innocent" Japan itself was cruelly bombed, destroyed, and defeated by the diabolical Anglo-American-Soviet war machine--will not soon or perhaps ever be recognized as acceptable and legitimate, even by an LDP-led government in Japan.
The actions taken by too many Japanese soldiers against (mainly) their fellow Asians from Korea to China to Singapore to Burma to Manila to Imphal (India) were simply too awful and too well documented to allow the head of the Japan ASDF to publicly espouse such rosy views of Japan's wartime conduct and colonial rule. As for the atomic bombings, they were terrible, but World War II was a hegemonic war, and hegemonic wars being what they are, the sky was the limit as far as use of WMD were concerned. Japan rolled the dice, tried to create its own autarkic sphere of influence over a huge region (under the guise of "liberating their little brown brothers") and suffered terribly.
Posted in: Was the dropping of the atomic bombs necessary?
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MASSWIPE
Absolutely fascinating thread to read through. The kozukai system is one of those things about Japan--like "parasite singles" (a term, incidentally, that was coined by sociologist Masahiro Yamada, quoted in the above article) and Charisma Man--that foreign (mainly Western) observers of Japan often find bewildering and incomprehensible. I can remember the first time I realized that millions of Japanese adults (especially women) lived rent-free with their parents without any accompanying social stigma. I couldn't believe it, but then I came to just accept the fact that Japan operates by a different set of rules.
As I wrote before, though, the kozukai system's best days are behind it. In modern Japan's dog-eat-dog economic environment, even the married-with-children salaryman --revered for his samurai-like devotion to family and company but now seeing himself squeezed by both companies that are cutting back on perks and their wives who are disproportionately reducing their pocket money (as the numbers in the above article show)--is starting to ask himself what the hell the point is of living life as a drone.
Posted in: The shrinking state of Japanese salarymen's pocket money