Japan in Perspective

Two books take startlingly different views on Japan, but James F. Paradise says Japan is like most other countries with its share of foibles and successes

By James F. Paradise
AsiaMedia Contributing Writer

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation
Michael Zielenziger
352 pp: Nan A. Talese, 2006. $24.95.

Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose
Kenneth B. Pyle
420 pp.: Public Affairs, 2007. $29.95.




There are two views of Japan in the West.

The dark view portrays Japan as hopelessly mired in an abundance of political, economic and social problems that are preventing it from making the necessary adjustments for the globalized world of the 21st century. Japan's transition to a more competitive political system has been slow, its economy has been saddled with non-performing loans and problems of corporate governance, and its social structure has been extremely rigid and unresponsive to changes brought on by a fast-changing international society. Add to this demographic problems -- the ageing of the population and the implications this could have for economic growth -- and the situation becomes more acute.

The other view -- what might be called the sanguine view -- has a much brighter assessment of Japan's behavior. It attributes greater importance to changes Japan has made in the political sphere -- a decline in the importance of political party factions (which, nevertheless, are still important) and a greater policy-making role for Japanese politicians -- and puts more weight on the restructuring that Japanese companies have undertaken over the past decade and a half or so. It also attaches significance to domestic political decisions to move Japan toward a more participant role in international security activities.

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation is a good example of the first view. Authored by Michael Zielenziger, the bureau chief in Tokyo for Knight Ridder Newspapers for seven years, the book presents an almost unrelenting negative view of Japan. Much of the book is focused on social and cultural problems, which include suicide, alcoholism, depression and youth crime. As an example of the tone of the book, Zielenziger writes, "The suicide rate has risen precipitously, while women in growing numbers are saying no to marriage and motherhood. Youth unemployment is stuck at an all-time high. Alcoholism, depression and divorce are increasing. Violence among teenagers grows more pronounced, and grade school children, some as young as eleven, kill classmates in sudden snaps of rage."

The book is peppered with words such as "malady," "disorder," "pathologies," and "syndromes," and the sources of Zielenziger's information include therapists, counselors and psychiatrists. The first third of the book is a discussion of the hikikomori, social isolates who remain holed up in their rooms, unable to face the outside world. For Zielenziger, the hikikomori seem to be a metaphor for Japan itself, a country that has long had a certain type of insularity and an uneasy relationship with outsiders.

Having spent a good deal of time in Japan myself, 15 years beginning in 1985, I am well familiar with the story that Zielenziger tells, except for the idea of the hikikomori, which was a new concept for me. I agree with much of what Zielenziger says, including his belief that rigidities and practices in Japan's educational and employment arenas have made it difficult to exercise creative and fast-fleeted change.

I also agree with Zielenziger that psychology is an important way to understand Japan, provided that it is linked to Japanese history and culture. Concepts such as "self-confidence" and "self-esteem," for example, might make more sense in societies in which the self -- conceptualized in more atomistic terms -- is held in high regard.

But I also feel that some of Zielenziger's analysis is informed by a strong Western point of view, some might say an ethnocentric point of view. For example, he seems to think that rapid reform is better than gradual reform (he has an approving chapter on South Korea, which is known for its more aggressive approach to reform), but one could always mention China as a case where a more cautious approach to reform worked and Russia where the opposite seems to not have been successful. He also seems to think that having outside directors for a company is a good thing, but the problem, as we have seen in the United States, is that all too often directors simply rubber stamp decisions made by top corporate management. I'm generally skeptical about any attempt to remake Japan in the image of the United States. The kind of slash-and-burn techniques used by American CEOs, outsourcing of operations and tremendously short-term time horizon in making decisions are activities that Japanese corporate managers would do well to avoid. The urging of the U.S. government in the 1990s for Japan to ratchet up its domestic spending is also questionable as it led to a deterioration in Japan's financial accounts.

As serious as many of Japan's problems have been -- a big fall in stock and real estate prices from the peak during the bubble economy, an increase in the unemployment rate (which has fallen more recently) and so on -- is Japan really in as bad a condition as some would make it out to be? An answer to this question can be found in another recently-published book, Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose by Kenneth B. Pyle.

Pyle, a professor at University of Washington, is representative of the sanguine view of Japan. His argument is that the world has changed in the past century and a half -- since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 -- and Japan has shown a great ability to adapt to it. "Few countries in modern history have been as subject -- and as sensitive, responsive, and adaptive -- as Japan to the forces of the international environment…Repeatedly, Japan has sweepingly revised its domestic order to meet the needs of new configurations of the international order," he writes.

The current period of history, Pyle notes, is one shaped by the end of the Cold War. Japan is now grappling to respond to the new environment, and is doing so by moving in a more assertive and proactive direction. He mentions debates on changes in the Constitution, particularly Article 9 that puts severe limitations on Japan's military (which goes under the name Self Defense Forces) and increased leadership responsibilities to the prime minister on foreign policy issues.

In providing a broad historical view, Pyle provides a context in which to understand Japan's current situation. One does not have to accept the realist argument that the international system is the prime mover of a country's decisions to accept the idea that it is an important factor in understanding how a country behaves.

Still one may question whether Japan is on the "threshold of a new area," as Pyle claims. Much may depend on whether one defines "new era" as one in which Japan settles into a middle power political role or whether Japan's international political influence is commensurate with its still great economic power.

How to reconcile the two points of view is not an easy challenge, and it is not even clear that they are reconcilable. My own take on it is that much of the writing about Japan has been exaggerated on both the upside and the downside.

When I was in Japan, working for Japanese companies, riding crowded trains, paying exorbitant prices for everything from airline tickets to apartment rents, and witnessing at many turns the "a nail that sticks up will be hammered back in" phenomenon, I never felt Japan lived up to the gushing enthusiasm that many writers had for it or that Japan was a threat to the West. And when Japan's bubble economy burst, starting in the early 1990s, it never seemed that things were as bad as some writers made it out to be either. True, many people lost a lot of money from soured stock and real estate investments and corporate restructuring forced a lot of adjustments as well, but Japan still had -- and has -- a huge trade surplus with the United States, its currency is still strong, the country enjoys social stability and a lot of things about Japanese management -- meticulous attention to planning and commitment to employees in a way unimaginable in the States -- seem sensible.

On the issue of change and continuity, it is possible to find much evidence that both are occurring. One of the common sentiments about Japan is that it is always changing but it is never changing, an idea which seems to have a large element of truth. The Japanese have a very strong self-identity and basic values do not easily change. But Japan has also been undergoing pretty major restructuring in the private sector and there have been government administrative changes as well.

One reason that Japan appears to have fallen so far is because China has risen so high. Unless there is an earthquake or other calamitous (or at least major event) event, Japan hardly rates a headline. The problem these days is not that we have a bad image of Japan in the United States, but that Japan is fading from memory.

Yet Japan has latched its fortunes to the United States and it may be that the United States does help pull Japan out of its doldrums by prodding it toward a bigger political role on the world, or at least regional, stage. Personally, I am not enthralled by this idea. Japan has occupied such a unique position in the post-World War II period -- committed to pacifism and reluctant to involve itself in military activities, until recently. We need more Japans, not less.

After being back in the States for about seven years now, Japan looks better and better every day -- and I am not talking about recent improvement in corporate profits and stronger economic growth. I am talking about the appalling state of U.S. government finance, the general untrustworthiness of so many American companies, be they cell phone, auto insurance, oil companies or what have you, the monarchical nature of the current administration and the constitutional crisis it has engendered, sexual abuses committed by priests in the Catholic church (is nothing sacred anymore?) and the ruination of the English language -- or moves in that direction -- by so many corporate and government flaks that like to tell us about "convenience fees," "collateral damage" and so on. And one other thing -- this a message to Michael Moore: you ought to have included Japan in your film "Sicko" -- its health care system, while not perfect, seems pretty good to me.

In the end, Japan truly is a normal nation -- it does some things well and some things not so well. Do not count it out -- it may not live up to the far-fetched scenarios of before but it will remain one of the world's great civilizations.

Date Posted: 7/18/2007