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The Problem of Wabi-sabi
In addition to the uchi-soto relationship briefly touched upon elsewhere, there is a complementary term that describes much less the relationships between Japanese than the individual feelings that result from these relationships. Wabi-sabi is part of a mixed set of feelings that form the basis for traditional Japanese character and against which the newly forming jiko-chû are a naturally occurring, modern, albeit asocial reaction.47
Collective Security and Individual Freedom Are a Trade-off Because individual Japanese identity is largely determined by one's membership in groups, individual Japanese are under constant pressure to suppress many of their personal preferences and feelings. This is not to say that Japanese are particularly unhappy, because their groups are often very supportive and provide their members with a sense of group security and individual well-being.
Already before my arrival in Japan I realized that USAmericans need to spend more time weighing the costs of their personal freedoms against the benefits of collective security. After having lived in Japan for many years, I can now safely say that Japanese need to weigh better the costs of group security against the benefits of personal freedom, or at least learn to exercise better the personal freedoms that they already enjoy.
In this regard, the two countries' soceities have a lot to learn from each other.
More on the Nature of Groups in Japanese Society There was a time in which individual humans belonged to single groups upon which their entire survival depended. Indeed, barriers to entry and exit were so high that being ostracized from one's group meant almost certain death. Although this is hardly the case in modern society, in a social atmosphere such as Japan's -- in which individual identity is so often determined by the group or groups to which one belongs, rather than one's character, personal achievements, professional career, and accumulated wealth -- group entry and exit barriers can still be formidable. This is especially true for the Japanese sarariiman whose only sources of income can be what he receives from his employment and interest earned on postal savings.48
Up until recently there was virtually no secondary labor market for many Japanese, which meant that leaving one's current place of employment was nearly certain unemployment. Because Japanese society places an important premium on the individual's ability to pay his own way, having to leave one's company, either voluntarily or by force, was a brutal fate. Unlike in Europe, for example, where being unemployed for a long period is often perceived as an extended paid or partially paid vacation, in Japanese society it was more akin to falling into a social abyss.
One's place of work is only one example among many by which to highlight the overall importance of group membership. Important is that the individual Japanese is forever reminded about the importance of his group -- whether as a member of his family, his school, his place of work, or any number of formally organized groups in which he spends his leisure hours.
Koromogae49
Nearly all Japanese school children wear uniforms. Not only are they required to wear these, but what part of them can and cannot be worn is dictated neither by the weather nor personal taste, but by pre-established dates that occur at the same time every year. So important is this custom that it is often carried into the workplace long after a Japanese has left school. The nezumi (mouse) gray suits that suddenly appear on the train platforms, streets, and local pubs around Tôkyô every spring are simply an adult extension of this school-yard tradition.
Women's dress is often more codified. Whereas men are usually permitted to choose the color and style of their suits and ties within well-established written or unwritten codified limits, women are often compelled to wear prescribed uniforms. Mind you, dress codes are only one blatant example of a long list of written and unwritten codes that determine individual behavior and appearance in Japan. A list far too long to go into here, but a list with one overriding purpose -- group identity and maintenance.
Groups vs Vigilantes People from more individualistic societies are prone to view such codes with horror reminiscent of the Jugendtruppe (highly disciplined youth groups) in national socialist Germany during the late 1930's and early 40's. Those who have lived in Japan for some length of time and have come to appreciate Japan's spirit of togetherness view the entire affair quite differently. Japanese groups rarely behave as gangs of vigilantes or social marauders. In fact, one's membership in a group often insures one's sense of social responsibility toward society at large. No one in the group wants other members of his group to be the cause of social disturbance, because that disturbance can be observed and reported, and reflects on one's group and personal identity.
Indeed, it is those individuals who drift away from the group, who become suspect in Japanese society -- not those with group membership.
Yes, there are those groups, such as the Japanese yakuza (Japanese organized crime similar to the Italian mafia) to which every foreigner quickly points. This is to remind his fellow country men and women that all is not a social bed of roses in Japan.50 Nevertheless, the yakuza are born of different cause, and this is easily verifiable by a comparison of Southern Italian and Japanese societies. Where are the uniformed school children, salary men, and office ladies in Southern Italy?
Indeed, what is probably most disturbing to foreigners about the sense of team spirit and group maintenance in Japan is that it is often leads to their exclusion.
So what does all of this have to do with wabi-sabi, you are probably asking?
Wabi-sabi sono mono
Wabi-sabi is a feeling of melancholy which overcomes the individual when he becomes physically or mentally separated from his group.51 It is a feeling of helplessness or longing to be with others combined with the inability to truly participate. This feeling can be caused by a variety of factors. Perhaps the individual no longer feels that his contribution to the group is adequately recognized. Perhaps there is a personal matter that he is reluctant to make public. Perhaps what he wishes to achieve in the group is different from what others would like him to achieve. The list goes on and on.
Because of Japan's growing generation gap recourse to one's parents is not always possible; moreover, competition among siblings in small nuclear families can make it difficult to establish close relationships with one's own brothers and sisters. Thus, by the time the individual reaches adulthood and enters the work force feelings of social alienation and isolation on the part of the individual can be profound. As a result, the individual does not participate in group activities or participates only minimally or mechanically when complete withdrawal is not possible. The psychosomatic illnesses that can result from such behavior are many; nevertheless, submissive behavior is preferred to the jiko-chû behavior of overly aggressive individuals who care little about anyone but themselves and their immediate friends.
In other societies in which individual expression is encouraged the individual is more outward going, and the constraints imposed by the group are less demanding. In such societies the individual can more easily find new friends outside of the established social circles in which he participates. The idea, that an individual could talk about anything to just about anyone whom he does not know, rarely occurs among Japanese. This quality of Japanese society makes life particularly difficult for troubled Japanese and newcomers to Japanese society. Important exceptions to this rule might be Japan's izakaya (Japanese pub or tavern), temples, churches, and shrines.
Wabi-sabi and Foreign Alienation Although newcomers to Japan could easily follow the crowd, they are probably not eager to do so, because they do not know where it is going and what to expect when they get there. It is one thing to adventure about on your own, it is quite another to follow a group of others with whose language and customs you have little familiarity. Thus, active participation on the part of foreigners in Japanese groups is largely limited by the foreigner's ability to speak Japanese and the linguistic competence of his group's English speaking members. Even foreigners who are far advanced in the Japanese language are likely to miss out on carefully nuanced jokes that depend on intimate knowledge of Japanese culture that foreigners who have not grown up in Japanese society are unlikely to have. For less experienced neophytes directives from the group's core have to be explained individually.
Due to their probable outward going nature and "gaijin status" foreigners are likely to make friends within a Japanese group far more rapidly than might a Japanese newcomer. As with Japanese, however, the scope of these friendships does not readily extend beyond the groups in which they are cultivated. As a result the group or groups in which foreigners participate, and the friendships that they make within these groups are likely insufficient to overcome important feelings of alienation and loneliness to which foreigners are susceptible in Japanese groups and society at large.
Japanese and foreigners who seek contact with Japanese outside of their groups often fail, because Japanese tend to eschew close interpersonal ties that do not depend on the group for their maintenance. Indeed, close friendships can easily become troublesome, if they are not cultivated within a group. Friendships cultivated within a group allow individuals to be close with others, but never so close that other members of the group are not involved. This interpersonal dynamic offers the Japanese interpersonal freedoms that those not familiar with Japanese groups and society in general are likely to ignore.
Of course, this interpersonal dynamic depends on the fluidity of the group, and one's interpersonal skills within the group. Certainly, some groups are more fluid than others. Also, one's ability to asssoicate freely within a group depends largely on one's desire to participate as a group member.
Certainly, what I describe here is not terribly different from elsewhere in the modern world. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are a common feature of industrially advanced societies the world over. Simply, there is something missing in Japanese society that can be found in other societies with which I am very familiar: the desire or ability to do things on one's own in public and the ability to interact with strangers -- key ingredients to solving the melancholy of wabi-sabi.
Whereas many Japanese may be content with feelings of wabi-sabi, because they feel other Japanese are feeling the same, it is unlikely that most foreigners will share this hidden collective empathy. In the minds of many foreigners, especially those coming from the West, it probably makes little sense to allow damaging barriers to communication to persist when they can easily be overcome by reaching out. So, what a surprise is in store for the naïve foreigner who believes, "If only I could overcome the language barrier." Indeed, the communication problem does not disappear so easily, and finding acceptance in one's group and Japanese society at large can still be very challenging.
Ironically, the Japanese, who could really benefit from the foreigner's pent up desire to communicate, is either shut-up in his dwellings reading manga (Japanese cartoon books) or out-and-about wandering aimlessly in that one area of Japanese society where most everyone is both welcome and free, so long as he has the ability to pay -- Japan's consumer markets.
So, is Japanese society so very different from other places in the modern world? Perhaps not.
47 See footnotes 36 45, and 46 for the Japanese renderings of the words wabi-sabi, uchi-soto, and jiko-chû, respectively. (text)
48 See footnotes 38, 39, and 40 for more information about Japan's sarariiman. (text)
49 The Japanese characters for koromogae are given as follows: 衣替え. The term arises from the noun koromo (衣), a formal gown, and the verb kaeru (替える) which means to substitute or change. (text)
50 The term yakuza (ヤクザ) is more often rendered in katakana (カタカナ) than in hiragana (かたかな). The katakana rendering is probably used to emphasize the sometimes very asocial character of these gangs' activities. (text)
51 The expression sono mono that follows the expression wabi-sabi in the title of this section conveys the idea of something being what it truly is. It is used as a form of emphasis and means in this context something like "and now to the point of". (text)
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