4 Myths about Japanese Culture

Despite enjoying Japanese culture to deeper extent than other countries, Taiwan still has its shares of myth held against Japan. Part of the reason is in Japan itself: we are the world's sloppiest nation when it comes to explaining who we are, what we do, and why we are the way we are. Here are some of the myths I have heard over the years. Let's see if they are true.

Japanese are horny.

False. I know, I know. Where did the word Bukkake (be careful, Wikipedia has gone NSFW) come from? It means "splash over your face" in Japanese. Who invented the tentacle rape (don't ask me)? If you go to any of the 100 adult entertainment shops in Taipei, 95% of the 10,000 DVDs sold are from Japan. But hey, lies, damn lies and statistics are on our side. The Japanese enjoy the least amount of sex, people, according to Durex.

Then what explains the amount of Japanese adult entertainment? What's true is that we (1) tend to over-divide a category and (2) almost all industry in Japan is saturated. Over-detailed and over-competitive; a deadly combination of two tendencies have driven the Japanese adult entertainment to an extreme, and as a consequence, fueled underground economies all over the world.

Japanese companies are not a great place to work.

True (from what I still hear from my friends). Each time I have high hopes for Japanese companies getting open to the world, a news like this pops up. The road is long...

(Taken from the merger of Lehman Brothers and Nomura, a Japanese investment heavyweight)

Lehman bankers encountered a different work culture at Nomura. One team of Nomura traders, for instance, sang a company song at morning meetings.

Asked about the training sessions for new hires, a Nomura spokeswoman said that both sexes were taught business etiquette, and the men and women were trained separately for logistical reasons.

Some Nomura managers interpreted strictly the company's dress code for women. They told women joining from Lehman to remove highlights from their hair, to wear sleeves no shorter than midbicep and to avoid brightly colored clothing, according to several people who joined from Lehman. Several women were sent home from the trading floor for dressing "inappropriately," these people say.

Japanese love eating whales.

False for Japanese in general, true for some old people. Whale was once considered valuable source of protein, and because we have enough meat now, whaling is a dying profession, reserved for old generations who eat for nostalgia. Full disclosure: I ate whale meat a couple of times with my granddad, and it does not taste good as meat (good for us after all).

A documentary called The Cove sheds some light on Japanese fisherman slaughtering dolphins. The fact: all Japanese on my network, including myself, learned we eat dolphins thanks to that film.

Ninja still exists.

False (I'm sorry). I mean, I thought that was a universally accepted truth until I talked with a Taiwanese acquaintance several months ago who told me "Of course they still exist, don't they?" It's all because of Kosugi Sho and his Carolco Ninja series. Damn you. In one of those films, titled Nine Deaths of the Ninja, his character is called Spike Shinobi (=spikey Ninja in Japanese). It is beyond salvation.

I saw a movie Ninja for the first time when I was 6, in Enter the Ninja, where Franco Nero plays a modern Ninja in white outfit. (If you wear a bright white costume in a bright sunny day, doesn't it discredit the whole point of being a secret agent?) Below is the trailer, but you can see the whole film on YouTube. Enjoy when you have nothing to do in a Sunday morning.

Comments

[Mark McClure]

Re: Japanese Companies are a Great Place To Work

I'm thinking that "the manicured nail that stands out gets hammered down!" ;-

[Isao]

I once made myself skinhead and wore a yellow tee to the office. I did. Nobody gave me a direct comment. Two weeks later someone told me of the hot debates in the boarding room regarding my behavior. You stick out enough, then nobody bothers you at least on the surface...kidding.

[Kofla Olivieri]

In our society, I mean here in the states, there is a lot of misconceptions about other cultures. What is really sad is that rumors and myths are taken as truth, so the misconceptions continue. Thanks for sharing.

[Isao]

The Japanese have misconceptions too - segrating ourselves works both ways. I remember years ago when I first visited Israel I was shocked to see bikini-clad girls roaming around the beach instead of black dress all over the place. Sometimes there is a pleasant surprise :)

[Account Deleted]

I happened to get a kick out of the Story of Stuff vid you posted. I am still learning to blog so I've not quite mastered track back features. My uncle used to live in Japan for many years as a Journalist and M.D. (were from Alabama in the States) and as his daughter didn't want his old belongings that had been stored at my grandmothers, I've inherited political pictures (including one of a Green Peace effort to stop whaling) pictures of my cousins mother and her family (who weren't happy that their daughter married an American in the early seventies; A no no and my uncle is red headed too, Lol!!) and all sorts of ephemera. It's a good thing I like scrap booking I guess.

[Isao]

I love the Story of Stuff video too (also as a language learning material - they come in variety of subtitles). Political pictures are always intriguing; they show the raw emotions of people who act rationally in their daily lives.

[Heidi Carter]

“Just as the young and sexually vulnerable present themselves in these western precincts as victims, so the mantra of the neophyte screenwriter is: I am young and stupid. Please abuse me.” - David Mamet, Bambi VS Godzilla ...Also made note of rational political thought - Ha Ha from the land of "Corporate Health Care"...does Japan have socialized Health Care btw? I feel like an idiot for never having looked it up or asked anyone that I already knew, who would know. *IOWA award for me - Idiot out wandering around - their State is usually the Health Care penny pincher in the States* Both my maternal uncles have degrees in Health Care but it's the one who was also a journalist (Sophia University) that is also the M.D. His baby brother was with the U.S. Embassy in Japan also and worked for Human Resources.

[Isao]

Yes, Japan still has a (barely) functioning health care. Old people are eating up the bulk of the resource. They use hospitals for socializing - who can blame them? Their children had abandoned them, the nurses and doctors care about them, and they meet friends.

[Ty Unglebower]

"we are the world's sloppiest nation when it comes to explaining who we are, what we do, and why we are the way we are."

This was a very well put statement. Not that I have any expertise in Japanese culture, but this is a very interesting way of stating the problem.

If you take this, and consider a lot of the VERY weird crap out there online and television that has "Japan" stamped on it, it's no wonder people get the wrong idea about the place as a whole. They form their judgments on what is seen the most, and there is little effort to counteract it.

Like judging all of the United States based on seeing a few Doritos commercials.

[Isao]

Sadly what you described (cultural stereotypes) exist everywhere and yes there is little effort to correct it. Thanks to the Internet we are connected but isolated in our small communities, sharing secret codes and peculiar customs without realizing so.

As you said we judge other countries based on cosmetic aspects, but also get upset when we are misunderstood by others. We aren't that aware of our own behavior.

[Van]

I feel your pain on the cultural stereotypes. Either because I look ethnically ambiguous or the lack of cultural education in North Florida I can literally be exhausted by rude, ignorant, and intrusive cultural questions every single day.

My favorite was being asked if I am "Kwik-E-Mart" like the chain in the Simpsons. That guy surely thought ninjas exist and hunt whales with harpoons while watching hentai. I despair...

[Isao]

In Taiwan I do not get that much stereotypical treatment, not because people are free from it but because people are modest enough not to blurt the K-word in your face. I guess the road is still long...

I occasionally dig a bit deeper (like that Ninja story) and amuse myself. Next time I will ask them about Harakiri.