Ask John: Is Japan a “Perfect” Country?

Question:
A lot of anime fans seem to consider Japanese society to be superior to American society. As an extreme example, an active user on one of my favorite internet message boards recently said, “It’s funny, though…how most Japanese are smarter, much more strict, much more clean, and much more oriented EVEN with animation that has much violence, nudity, homosexualism, and swearing. Here we are, much more reserved, with a much worse society.” What are your throughts on this opinion?

Answer:
To cite a cliché, the grass is always greener on the other side. Like all major industrialized nations, Japan has its own distinct positive and negative aspects; however because of our enthusiasm over the Japanese comic and animation industry, and Japan’s own traditional emphasis on maintaining a positive social appearance, it’s easy for especially westerners to see Japan through rose colored glasses. To some degree, Japan is smarter, cleaner and ironically simultaneously more strict and more liberal than America is. Japanese children and teens spend more time in school than American students do, and more cultural importance is placed on education and the public educational system in Japan than is in the US. While this emphasis on education results in impressive technological achievements credited to Japan, and a bustling economy, it is also responsible for one of the world’s highest rates of teen suicide with statistics that peaked in the 1980s and 90s. In many cases, Japanese teens simply could not withstand the pressure to achieve levied upon them by parents, peers and the Japanese educational system, and instead chose to escape this pressure through suicide. It’s true that Japan is a cleaner country, both literally, and in the sense that Japan has the world’s highest concentration of living people aged over 100 years, but to some degree it’s difficult to compare the cleanliness of Japan to that of America when the entire country of Japan is roughly the same size as the state of California alone.

Ironically Japanese society is both very strict and very liberal at the same time. The traditional social precept is that virtually any behavior is acceptable so long as it remains out of public view. Japanese society is dominated by strict and formal levels of politeness, expressed in speech and body language. Formality must be maintained at all times except in socially approved situations such as after work drinking parties and baseball games. Because Japan is not a Christian country, sexuality is considered a natural pleasure and pastime not to be ashamed of, but at the same time depictions of genitalia in print or film are strictly prohibited by Japanese custom. From a western perspective Japan’s open acceptance of sexuality may seem liberal and progressive, but this sexual freedom is not without its price. Japan is still a country that openly practices and virtually condones sexual discrimination by de facto limiting the professional heights to which women can rise. Prostitution is technically illegal in Japan, but is practiced openly and routinely. “The scale of prostitution in Japan is the largest among developed nations,” averaging roughly 7 times the average rate in America and Europe. Since there’s no religious prohibition against casual sex in Japan, the “enjo kosai,” or “compensated dating” trend of Japanese girls as young as 12 accepting money or gifts in exchange for dates and sex with older men has become headline news worldwide in, for example, Time Asia. In fact, the epidemic of teen prostitution was so overwhelming that Japan actually passed a stricter law against teen prostitution on December 16, 1997 (Seattle Times). And according to a Japan Times article from only two months ago, the transmission of sexually transmitted disease in Japan is increasing dramatically every year while the use of contraceptive devices continues to be statistically very low.

Japan has also suffered under increasing instances of teen violence. In 1997 a 14 year old Japanese boy was arrested for serially attacking 5 children, including beheading an 11 year old girl and leaving her decapitated head on a school gate (Japan Ponders Changes in Juvenile Justice System). On November 25, 2000 a 23 year old man was beaten to death in the middle of a public street by 30 members of a teenage motorcycle gang in a 20 minute long orgy of violence (Japan’s Biker Gangs: Young, Fast And Deadly). The rate of violent crime in Japan perpetrated by juveniles increased by 15% in the first six months of 2000 alone. Going hand in hand with the steady increase in violent crime by Japanese teens is the disturbing increase of “hikikomori,” reported on as recently last May, Japanese teens that withdraw from school, friends and family and live as reclusive shut-ins surviving only on a steady diet of video games, anime and instant ramen noodles.

And this discussion does not even begin to address Japan’s recent economic downturn and stock market crashes.

While it’s true that America may have more than its fair share of domestic and international dilemmas, American anime fans should be careful not to idolize and glamorize Japan too much as a utopian ideal. Japan is a relatively extremely racially homogenous country with strict immigration allowances and more than a thousand of years of social traditions and customs while America has less than 300 years of experience to rely on. And as stated earlier, Japan is also a very small country, which allows for greater social cohesion and uniformity to present a positive face to the rest of the world. Japan certainly has its positives , but like any other nation in the world, it also has its own domestic problems and aspects that members of another nation or culture may find unappealing, un-natural, offensive or otherwise negative.

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