Two Sides to a Coin

by Paul Cipywnyk

This column ran in the Oct. 6, 1991, Asahi Evening News.

"Can't you think of anything nice to write about Japan?"

While stoking my anger, and scanning the papers for another scandal to dissect, I remembered the plaintive question from a Japanese student and the wind left my sails. That's all she had said, in indirect Japanese fashion, but the implication was clear. What she probably wanted to say was, "If all you can to is criticize Japan, then why have you lived in Tokyo for six years? If Canada is so wonderful, what are you doing here?"

I told her that if I were living in Canada, I'd be criticizing Canadian politics and social problems, but it was a half-baked answer. It's easy to get mad and criticize, but even "constructive" criticism has a negative aura. No matter how valid the criticism, it doesn't make people feel good. All sticks and no carrots don't result in positive behavior change, they only lead to resentment.

Writers love to attack. Whether they are professionals or outraged letters-to-the-editor novices, it's easiest to write about something that angers them. Anger is a great motivator, it gets the pen onto the paper and the ink flowing. But it's only half of the writing equation. The prolific Ray Bradbury in his Zen In the Art of Writing emphasized the power of emotion in stimulating the writing process, but his was a two-part question. "What do you love, or what do you hate?"

"We" gaikokujin have been doing too much hating and not enough loving. "We" rant about tolerance and individualism and respect, but where is "our" acceptance? My student was right. There must be more that I like about life in Japan than I dislike, or I wouldn't still be here, six years after coming for a "six-month experience."

For every negative aspect of Japan, there is something positive. This is true for most any free, democratic country in the world. Then why all the carping? Why are foreigners (this writer included) always lambasting Japanese society for some reason or other? For every political, bureaucratic or corporate scandal in Japan, one can find a scandal in a Western country. For every social ill in Japan, there are societal problems in other countries.

Why so much picking on Japan? Could it be envy? To some extent this may be natural. When Japan was a struggling war-shattered backwater, nobody cared about Japanese ways of doing things. But now that it is an economic superpower, everything comes under the microscope, usually to the detriment of Japan. Just because Japanese society has different customs and its political and economic systems work differently doesn't mean they're wrong.

Everyone is pushing the internationalization of Japan. Wonderful. Internationalization in the sense of awareness and respect is fantastic, but it's a two-way street. Too often when people say Japan should internationalize, they really mean "Westernize."

What is it that the "West" can give or teach Japan? High unemployment? Antagonistic labor-corporate relations? Sky-high divorce and single-parent family rates? Rampant drug use? Illiterate high school graduates? Widespread poverty? Instead of being afraid of, or envying, Japanese successes, why not emulate them? Perhaps other nations should try some "Japanization."

Japan is far from perfect. But for all its faults Japanese society works amazingly well. So here's the challenge: What do you love about Japan? What could other nations learn from Japan? What makes Japan successful and could these positive traits be transplanted to other countries? Let's have a few rounds of appreciation before we go back to criticizing.