From previous thread...
Quote:Knygatin
Passive-aggressiveness is part of every civilized culture. Otherwise our society would have looked like a battlefield out of R. E. Howard's Conan. In European culture the intellectual debate has evolved to sidestep violence. The more repressed communication in Japanese culture can have some negative neurotic side effects, for sooner or later energy has to go somewhere. Akira Kurosawa's films examine this, and, I am sure, so do also many modern Japanese films that I have not seen.
I think it also goes into some negative areas, like porno, etc.
That there is a lot of apparent pressure is evident, and there are many safety valves.
I am not sure that the tradition Japanese view of the emperor being a literal descendant of the sun (god), and the Japanese people are hence related, but one step removed, to the sun as well--and all this implies--can survive in an increasingly cosmopolitan and interlinked world. This was workable in isolation (and to a degree Japan seems to be drifting toward isolation, relative to the 60s-90s) but the defeat in WWII changed all that.
Quote:Knygatin
Europeans have much respect for the sophistication of Japanese culture, especially the samurai tradition, and of course technology, have made a great impression. Likewise Japanese are very curious about Western culture. There is a polite but dedicated fanbase in Japan for almost every little obscure underground cult band or artist we have (and most of us don't even know about). The Japanese are very enthusiastic. But this extreme open-mindedness also make them vulnerable and run the risk of threatening Japanese culture, from destructive liberal capitalist influences flooding the country.
Not sure I'd consider the Japanese "open-minded" so much as seeking a solid ideal to use as a template. With the unmasking of the emperor as a privileged common man, the central mystique of Shinto was broken into a million pieces. It was as if the Pope was forced by circumstance to state, publicly, that he had never had any sign, whatsoever, from the deity. A whole lot of Catholics would be devastated, but they had at least their underlying ethnic cultures to bolster them--the Irish cpuld go back to drinking, the Mexicans could go back to worshipping Xiuhpilli, or whoever--but the post war Japanese did not have even this. They had to confront the idea that there was nothing special about them, as their mythology implied, in the bigger picture, and as insular as they tended to be, this came a a shock.
I think that they then emulated the habits/customs of the victors--who, face it, were extremely kind and generous in the context of history and of Japanese experience as victors, themselves--sort of a large scale Stockholm Syndrome. They were already about halfway there, owing to the foreign policy of the Meiji era, which emphasized westernization and modernization.
So traditional Japanese culture can semi-survive in an isolated society that does not need to compare itself to the rest of the world, but outside of this space, those Japanese who are living and have lived in a more open environment, really aren't much like those still imbued with the culture. These "transplants", like my wife, retain the *core* values, like loyalty, industry, honor, collective effort, respect for elders, but balk at the levels of male domination and social stratification of many Japanese nationals.
As always, these are only my opinions and could be wrong.
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 28 Aug 20 | 02:08PM by Sawfish.