Bureaucracy in Japan

My friend "Jean-Guy"recently visited from China. As his most recent post stated, he was frustrated. He said there was a lot of inefficiency in China, both in the private and public sectors (please check out his blog for some recent examples of this). With Japan's so-called "Useless people" in mind, I wondered if maybe some of the extra steps / red tape he had to go through was because of the extra jobs that had to be created simply to keep everyone employed. His visit and concerns got me thinking about the bureaucracy or rather, what might perceived as bureaucracy by some foreigners, in Japan.



Shortly before his visit, I had watched the 1974 Sydney Pollack film, "The Yakuza", starring Robert Mitchum. Unlike most films dealing with Japan, this one avoided stereotypes and was actually pretty true to many aspects of Japanese culture (although Christina Kokubo as Hanako is obviously not raised in Japan - check out that accent! She's cute, though). Apparently, according to his Wikipedia entry, Mitchum was even offered protection by authentic Yakuza during the filming in Japan. Which is pretty cool. Too bad the film is currently suffering yet another pointless Hollywood remake (due this year). Anyway, there is a scene in the movie in which Mitchum's character is shown the Japanese Kanji character 道 and asked to identify it. He correctly guesses one aspect of its meaning: a street (pronounced "michi"). However, as he is informed, it also can mean a way or method (pronounced "doo"). He is told that this character's meaning is central to the Japanese way of life.



Indeed, this "do" (actually written with a long o, please don't bother to correct me Japanophiles, I'm just too lazy to type it in) is present in the names and spirit of many traditional Japanese cultures. It is the do of Japanese martial arts Judo and Kendo. It is the doo of sado/chado, the Japanese tea ceremony (literally the "way of tea"). It is the do of Bushido, the samurai code of chivalry. However, please don't be confused by the word "way". In the West, the word implies that there is more than one way. Here in Japan, you are usually dealing with the way. This is usually hard for Westerners (it was for me, anyway) to wrap their heads around.

In Japan, you have a society that is geared towards accommodating groups rather than individuals. There's even a famous saying encouraging conformity: "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down". In the West, the individual is king.There, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease": a person is weak if they don't complain about poor service in restaurants or they are foolish if they don't sue for an infraction that might be perceived as slight elswhere. In Japan, you have a fairly rigid and traditional educational structure that cannot be said to encourage critical thinking. In the West, "individuality" is encouraged, perhaps even at the cost of other developmental factors. In Japan, you have the concept of "kaizen", slow, continual, improvement. In the West, fix it. Now.

Having studied and visited Japan a few times before, not to mention having read countless books and seen quite a few docs on the subject, I was perhaps better prepared than most to deal with the inevitable culture shock. It's easy to be lulled into a false sense of complacency that "it's just like home" when there's McDonald's, tall buildings and TV just like in America, Canada, England, Australia, or wherever you're from. However, that stuff is literally just surface; underneath still lurks the ideas, beliefs, and predjudices of 2000 years of culture (quite a few of which were spent as a country closed to the rest of the world).

Yet, after Jean-guy had boarded his plane home, these thoughts were still milling around aimlessly in my head, kind of like large fish in a small tank. There were already various examples of the bureacracy here to consider:

• When I first arrived here, I was already familiar with the system. Things take a long time and usually involve a lot of paperwork. To get a bank account cost me three hours of my life (the bank stayed open later for us, however). One must get special seals made up to sign papers. To request special treatment or to even attempt to challenge the status quo is usually an excercise in futility. Thus, I willingly went with all suggestions given regarding phone plan, internet, purchases, etc. Despite my advice (and our supervisor's suggestion), another JET requested wireless internet. The papers went through, but he was denied service because "somebody already has wireless internet in that building". He had to spend three hours getting a special seal made in order to cancel the request!

• When I needed to go to the hospital on Thursday, I was informed that the hospital was "closed". Not only that, they close every Thurdsay! "Uh, what do people do if they happen to get seriously sick on a Thursday?" I inquired. Turns out an ambulance will come and take you to a far away specialist hospital. So, if you come, don't get sick on a Thursday.

This bureacratic approach also extends to the JET Programme. There are orientations, meetings, workshops, forms, etc. aplenty. I am of the slight impression that allowances are made to accomodate the Western view, however - people are pretty easygoing and don't expect the same reaction from an ALT as they would from a native. This is appreciated.

Speaking of forms, check out these excerpts from a survey the JET people sent us (please click on them to see a larger version):






Okay...the Mayor? Gestures and drawings? I chuckled.

Then I saw the recent response to this survey:





Out of 5494 JET participants, there were 4216 respondents. So, if .4% claim to have been assaulted by the Mayor, that's 20 people! As more than one JET might be in the same city, that could be the same Mayor... Interesting results.

It took my recent trip to Okinawa with the students for all these thoughts about bureacracy - especially regarding school - to coalesce. See if you notice anything about our schedule:

February 22 - 27: Multiple teachers meetings to discuss the trip

February 28:
6:10 a.m. - Teachers arrive at school for another, pre-trip teacher's meeting
6:40 - Students (and some parents) gather outside for departure ceremony. Though it's cold, some students are dressed for Okinawa weather (shorts, etc.) and are visibly freezing.
7:00 - Departure. Students use the bus microphone to deliver announcements and play games.
9:15 - Arrival at the departure airport. Students again sit outside for another meeting.
11:30 - Arrival at Okinawa. Students again sit, this time inside the airport, for another meeting.
11:40 - We get on the bus. There is a tour guide, who talks and sings through the bus mic.
12:20 p.m. - We arrive at the Okinawa Peace Museum. We all sit, and a woman host talks for at least an hour straight.
1:20 - We pile back on the bus and our guide tells us about our next location.
2:00 - We arrive at a cave, where our cave guide gives us an introduction outside for about 15 minutes.
2:15 - We enter the cave. After walking down into the main cave, the guide tells us the story of the cave. For about half an hour. In the cave.
3:20 - We get on the bus to a guide waiting to inform us about our hotel's details.
5:00 - We arrive at the hotel. After a short rest, we have dinner....
7:00 - after some announcements.
8:00 - Yet more announcements.
9:00 - Teacher's meeting.
11:00 on - Many students call our room until about 2am. Some are crank calls and some are students wanting to discuss their future with the vice principal.
The next two days - More of the same.

So... Too. Much. Talking! I really appreciated that I was allowed to go, but... There was a lot of teachers running around with clipboards, talking at students (and the rest of us), and people standing there with crossed arms trying to look important. It was frustrating. While I don't like having my time wasted, I especially felt sorry for the kids. At another school, kids go to school for at least 10 hours a day, every day, without a single day off for 12 months. At my school, one club is taken so seriously that the parents have requested that their kids get some free time - the kids are here every day including weekends. Every day, sometimes 10 or more hours a day. As I write this, it's a holiday and the kids are here, wearing their uniforms, some cleaing the school and some in club.

So, of course, this bureacracy permeates the Japanese school system as well, but here it has a much more military / authoritarian bent. Based on military ideas borrowed from the Europeans, school in Japan involves:

• Students wearing school uniforms. These are worn even on weekends and holidays. I often see the kids wearing them as I ride around town. These uniforms, made famous through anime such as Sailor Moon, etc., are actually based on Prussian military garb from a century ago.

• A military, march-in-line-while-chanting approach during almost all activities. The other day at school I heard what sounded like solidiers marching, except the voices were very high-pitched. Where once I would have asked, "what the hell is that?", I now am used to this approach to things (as well as the fact that it's difficult to get an answer to your questions). These marches continued for about an hour. Again, as I write this, the students are in the gym chanting while playing volleyball.

• Ritualized greetings at the beginning and end of classes. The student-teacher relationship is based mostly on the outmoded grammar-translation method, which focusses on the teacher rather than the student. One elementary school teacher once spent about 15 minutes (a long time in class) explaining how to correctly address me. Though I told him I really wasn't concerned, he told me it was more about maintaining respect for the other teachers.

• A "one right answer" approach. For example, during the ritualized greeting, students are asked, "How are you?" to which they robotically reply "FIne, thanks and you?" (usually pronounced as "finesanksandyou"). How deeply this response is ingrained in the Japanese psyche was made clear when, during our orientation, one teacher told us this tale of a Japanese exchange student: Suddenly the victim of stomach pains, his American hosts brought the boy to the hospital. Writhing with pain and clutching his stomach, he lay silent on the stretcher. The doctor leaned in and began examining him. "How are you doing there?" he asked. The boy was weak, but managed to croak out a reply...."fine, thanks and you?"

• Students cleaning the school at the end of every school day. This is done to a tape of two cheery, cartoony instrumentals that repeat. Students either use tongs to pick up garabage outside the school, push a broom along the hallway, or literally hop along the floor like frogs while pushing a rag in front of them to clean the floor. Theres also a yearly "grass-cutting" ceremony that involves all the teachers, parents, and students arriving at the school at 7:30 am on a day so incredibly humid that I was sweating on the inside. We were given small (maybe 12-inch) sickles, gloves, and instructed to cut the grass.

• Students of radically different mental and physical abilities and disabilities being thrown together in the same class. This becomes really clear when marking papers - it's either a 14% or a 90%. Also, some students have, well, serious emotional problems. "She's a good kid" I remarked about one cool girl. "Oh, she cuts herself" I was told. Huh? 13 years old and cutting her wrists? Maybe I'm just a jaded Westerner, but that sounds kinda, oh, you know - fucking serious!

• And so on.

Though of course I am from a foreign culture and shouldn't judge, it is perhaps easier for outsiders to view other societies objectively. As most of the problems here are of a social nature, doesn't it seem that the root of these problems might lie in the structure of the society? For example, ijime (bullying) is a recent social concern in Japan. The idea is that the student is different and that this difference should be stamped out. Many of these students take the rejection to heart and kill themselves. Similarly, later in life, if one is found lacking at work, that person is socially shunned (though not necessarily fired) and may end up killing themselves. There has even been a recent trend here towards so-called "suicide clubs", in which like-minded depressives meet each other online and gang up to off themselves. Doesn't there seem to be a theme here?

When I arrived in Japan the very first time, I thought that the reason for this conformity was biological: there was so many people in such a small place so, if even 1% of people deviated from the norm, it'd be messy. Thus, riualized answers are preferrred over critical thinking, uniforms over personal style (I can't tell you how many people don't like underground fashion or music in Japan) , etc. I still believe this to be a factor, though there appear to be other reasons.

These are not criticisms, just observations of real events. I love Japan and would only like to see things improve. This is obviously a large issue, so I'd be interested in any comments, especially from Japanese folks.