Lost In Translation

Interesting Facts & Cultural Awkwardness

Kate Elwood presents some interesting tidbits about the origins of some useful office equipment and a discussion about how Japanese and Americans deal with awkward situations in her latest Cultural Conundrums column in The Daily Yomiuri:

Around 1896 a man named Eli Hubbell Hotchkiss created a new type of paper fastener that, like earlier versions, drove a piece of metal through sheets of paper to secure them together.

What was new about Hotchkiss' gadget was that the staples were connected together along the top so that strips of them could be fed into the stapler instead of requiring reloading each time, a most welcome improvement to all who were eager to do lots of paper attaching at one go.

Then, around 1910, Hotchkiss sent a shipload of his nifty devices to Japan, which paid him the honor of forever after calling staplers of any make "hotchkiss" well after Eli's company had stopped making staplers and the cross-cultural entrepreneur was long forgotten by the general public in his home country.

I knew nothing of this enterprising manufacturer until I came to this marvelous country and learned, like all new students of Japanese, the words for a variety of office supplies, and much later I investigated who this intriguing Mr. Hotchkiss had been, along with Tokuji Hayakawa, founder of Sharp Corp., who invented a mechanical pencil he called "Ever Sharp" in 1915, the reason these writing implements are called "sharp pencils" in Japanese. When I first came to Japan so many years ago, however, I had no time to dabble in these interesting histories. I did, however, need to get hold of the items themselves which led me to a small stationery store in Mitaka, Tokyo, in search of office supplies.

Though modest in size, the store was jam-packed with all the usual stuff, like paper, tape, glue and pens, as well as things I did not recognize like the shitajiki sheets of stiff plastic used to put under notebook pages in order to write on a firm surface--not only was I unfamiliar with the item itself, I was also unaware of the need it addressed, perfectly happy with the oh-so-slightly soft "give" as I wrote on pages in notebooks resting on the pages below them. Next to the shitajiki were yo-yos, recognizable yet a bit surreal in the surroundings. But...no staplers that I could spot anywhere.

Here, she gets to the point of the column:

What exactly this discomfiture is and how we cope with it may vary depending on culture. Communication researchers Todd Imahori and William Cupach examined how Americans and Japanese cope with embarrassing predicaments. First they asked respondents to describe a situation in which they had committed a social faux pas resulting in feelings of awkwardness, embarrassment, loss of face, or shame. They then classified these situations as 1) accidents, like tripping; 2) mistakes, like walking into the wrong room; 3) inept performances, like doing less well than expected; and 4) rule violations, like being overheard insulting someone.

The researchers further categorized the experiences based on whether the situation took place among "in-group" people, such as family, friends, classmates or coworkers; or "out-group" people, for example, passing acquaintances or strangers; or a mixture of both types of relationships. On top of this, the way each respondent dealt with the social scrape was slotted as apology, account, humor, remediation and avoidance. Finally, the ensuing emotions were sorted as awkward, embarrassed, stupid, ashamed, guilty, uncertain, scared, regretful, shocked and impatient.

Imahori and Cupach found that Japanese respondents were more likely to describe predicaments involving mistakes. Americans, on the other hand, more frequently reported accidents and rule violations. Moreover, the Japanese recounted more in-group situations as opposed to the out-group experiences detailed by the Americans. In addition, the Japanese used remediation much more often than the Americans who for their part were more apt to use humor as a coping strategy. As far as emotions go, the Japanese tended to feel ashamed, guilty, uncertain, regretful or shocked more than the Americans, who felt embarrassed or stupid.

If I apply Imahori and Cupach's classifications, my hotchkiss fiasco was a mistake among out-group spectators, and feeling absolutely and positively stupid and embarrassed I fled the scene, which the researchers note is an extreme form of avoidance. Of course, each predicament has its own particular constraints. Apology was not possible because the woman had, perhaps similarly ill at ease and self-conscious at having to handle the case of mistaken identity on the part of a non-Japanese, had already vacated the premises tout de suite. Humor, quite obviously, was well beyond my linguistic means.

More Japanese Cowardice

It's rare to see brave Japanese step up and take a long look at themselves and their history, instead we get fear, cowardice and ethnocentric moves like this:

TOKYO — A Tokyo cinema decided against showing a controversial documentary film by a Chinese director on the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, citing the potential "inconvenience" it may cause to other tenants in the same building, an official of movie theater operator T-Joy Co. said Tuesday.

"The film is talked about so much that it may create trouble and we don't want to cause inconvenience to building tenants," a T-Joy official was quoted as telling Argo Pictures, a distributor of "Yasukuni" by resident Chinese director Li Ying.

Wald9 Cinema in Shinjuku Ward, operated by T-Joy, was among four cinemas in Tokyo scheduled to premier the documentary on April 12, along with a few other cinemas in Osaka and Fukuoka.

The film tells the stories of people involved with Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo who have varied feelings about the war and the shrine, and focuses in particular on a swordsmith who manufactures "Yasukuni Swords."
Some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers called for an unprecedented preview of the film, questioning if it was appropriate to grant a 7.5 million yen from state coffers to fund the production of the documentary that they said appeared to be anti-Japan. A preview was given March 12 by Argo Pictures on condition that it was open to all lawmakers.

Constitutional scholar Yasuhiro Okudaira of the University of Tokyo criticized the theater's decision, saying a cinema that decides against showing the documentary "consequently is endorsing the idea of those people opposed to its release and is depriving the director of freedom of expression."

"Japan Has Four Seasons..."

If you've ever lived in Japan you've heard this refrain many times and Japanese people seem surprised that there are four distinct seasons in places like Washington state. Sawa Kurotani looks at this idea in her column for The Daily Yomiuri, Behind The Paper Screen, but not as critically as I thought she might:

Japan is one of the few regions of the world that is blessed with four distinct seasons--at least that was what I often heard when I was growing up. Places like California, I was also told, had no seasons at all, and the weather was pretty much the same all year round. Seasonal changes were so much a part of my world back then that it sounded like some fantastic story. How can they not have four seasons?

I have lived in many different parts of the United States--Oregon, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina and Southern California--and experienced diverse climates that I never did in Japan. It is true that many of those places don't have the "four seasons" as we know them in Japan. Southern California, where I live now, certainly does enjoy mild temperatures and sunny weather most of the year, just as I heard a long time ago in Japan. It doesn't take long for people to get used to one bright sunny day after another, as I myself found very quickly, and we complain bitterly at any aberration from our expectation of perfect weather.

***

Seasonality is in the eyes of the beholder, not in the natural weather patterns in themselves. Kisetsukan, or literally, "the feel of the season," is one of the key concepts in Japan's cultural and artistic traditions. For example, haiku poetry places a strong emphasis on the seasons, and every piece must contain an appropriate kigo, or "season word." (There is even a book that lists all recognized kigo by season.)

The sensitivity toward seasonal change also informs mundane details of everyday life as well. There are food items that mark each season. A new tea crop in May, the katsuo bonito season in early summer and a new crop of rice in October are just a few examples that every Japanese would recognize. My parents--who may be somewhat old-fashioned but in no way extraordinary--religiously observe koromogae (seasonal wardrobe change) and would not even think of wearing anything made of linen until after the tsuyu, or early summer rainy season, for example.

Compared to extreme weather patterns in many parts of the United States, seasonal changes in much of Japan are quite moderate. Kisetsukan, in fact, produces four distinct seasons through a series of cultural practices that mark otherwise ambiguous seasonal transitions. Such sensitivity is impractical, however, if you live in an unforgiving climate, where adaptation to extreme hot and cold is, literally, a matter of life or death. From the Thanksgiving story, in which immigrants barely escaped starvation during a harsh winter, to Paul Bunyan, a mythical folklore figure whose tall tales often revolved around extreme weather, American folk tradition is full of stories about human struggles against the inhospitable natural environment. Fortitude in the face of nature, it seems, is still deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of Americans, who seem to lack sensitivity toward seasonal changes, unlike Japanese who value their kisetsukan.

The Future of Higher Education

Here's an interesting quote from Japan Today:

"There needs to be a vigorous discussion about the role of higher education in Japan, and a serious challenge to the notion that it is primarily for social rather than intellectual or vocational development."

Roger Goodman, a Japan expert and professor at Oxford University. He says Japan's struggling universities face a bleak future. The results of his research are published in "The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook About Japan." (Kyodo)

I think this idea is slowly catching on and some universities are changing. For example, next year I will be starting to teach at a new program at Meiji University, the School of Global Japanese Studies, which wants to get international recognition. Which is why they are making English a major component of the course since it is the lingua franca of academia, this includes a semester abroad in an English speaking country, as well as two years of multiple English content courses.

Another school, Chuo University law School, where I will begin teaching part-time also has instituted an academic literacy program for learning English. So there is change in the air, however, many other institutions and programs follow the status quo and require very little from students in order to get their degrees. It'll be interesting to see how the schools adapt over time.

Driving License Odyssey

I recently changed my Washington State driver’s license over to a Japanese driver’s license at the Kanagawa Driver’s Licensing Center in Futagawa, Yokohoma. And let me tell you what a tedious process it was. First you have to have your driver’s license translated at Japan Automobile Federation.

Then when you make your first visit you bring 1) your license and the translation, 2) Alien resident card, 3) all of your passports (including any expired ones), 4) proof of having driven in your home country more than 90 days (more on this later-because this was a problem)-I had my complete driving record form Washington State, 5) one passport size photo.

First of all I had the wrong information. I thought it was open from 8:30-4 with a lunch break, so I went after 1:30 and found out you can only submit document between 8:30-9:00 and then from 1:00-1:30.

The next time I went, I found out that I had to bring my old expired passport and that my Washington State driving record didn’t count because it listed only my most current license, which is valid from 12-28-2005 until 03-18-2011. There’s nothing about driving from1985 till 2005, so it wasn’t acceptable. Luckily I had 3 or 4 expired licenses that I had been carrying around with me while in Japan. I brought these the next time I visited.

After my paperwork was processed I took a simple writing test with 10 questions in English. You are allowed to miss 3of the 10, I missed 2. Then they give you a driving test date if you are American, South American, Sri Lankan, or Indian (at least these were the others that had the take the test with me). Canadians, Europeans, Australians, and Brits don’t have to take the driving test for some reason. I can understand those from countries who drive on the left, but why Canadians? They drive on the right like we do.

Anyway, the test was the following week on a Tuesday at 8:30am (did I mention it was more than an hour round trip from my house?) Only 2 people in the two groups passed the test that day there were people that were on their 3rd or 4th try. I had heard via the Internet that you could take a practice session on Saturday for 8000 yen to learn the secrets to pass the test. One guy who took thee hours worth still failed because he didn’t check over his shoulder enough during the course. I failed because I hit a curb and made some other mistakes as well like not making turns tight enough. The guy who drove before me did the Sunday course after failing his first test and recommended it as the only way of being able to pass it. I was tired of making the trip out there so I signed up for it.

The following Sunday I paid to rent on e of their cars and an instructor drove with me giving me pointers how to driver the course, then showed me how to do it herself, and then I drove it one more time. There are a couple of spots where you are not supposed to go over 10 km an hour and need to stay left on wide road 1 m away form the curb-typical anal Japanese "yarikata" (way of doing things) BS. 22 years of driving doesn’t count a lick here.

The next day I took the test the evaluator didn’t give me any advice this time and I passed. I guess they can see on the application sheet you took the course and are probably more inclined to pass you. I still only got an 80/100 and have no idea what they think I did wrong.

Well, at least I don’t have to go there again until I need to renew my license in less than three years.

Death And Taxes

In this week's Daily Yomiuri Behind The Paper Screen column, Sawa Kurotani discusses how idioms and proverbs reflect cultural values and how they are often difficult for non-native speakers to understand without the cultural context from which they were created:

Linguistic anthropologist Benjamin Whorf proposed that the language frames the human thought process and color our recognition of reality. Surely I would have never thought of the connection between death and taxes without this popular quote. But in fact, it was recent events that triggered my thoughts about it. Earlier this month, as I began to prepare for an upcoming meeting with my accountant to go over my 2007 taxes, I received the sad news that a highly respected member of the local expatriate Japanese community suddenly died of a heart attack. He was only 60 years old, in good health and had no known heart problems. The news came as a great shock to those of us who knew him.

I looked at the manila folder on my desk, where I keep all my tax stuff. I'm good about keeping receipts and such, and my meeting with my accountant should go smoothly. In a week or so, he'll send me the prepared tax forms, which I'll sign and mail to IRS, and I'm good for another year. If we can't avoid taxes, we can, at least, prepare for them.

By contrast, there is nothing that truly prepares us for death.

Click here to read the entire article.

Cultural Conundrums: Isn't It Ironic?

Kate Elwood takes on the differences regarding irony in America and Japan in her Daily Yomiuri column. I've often suggested to my friends back home that I'm suffering from "irony deficiency" since it is seldom employed in the manner that my wise-crackin friends from home do:

Nonetheless, over the years I've witnessed several occasions on which Americans and other English speakers have attempted ironic utterances when speaking to Japanese people only to find that their ironic intentions are met with incomprehension and blank stares or puzzled grins leading some to claim that Japanese people have no sense of irony. Which somehow seems, well, ironic, given the subtlety of the Japanese language and culture.

Of course, what these doubters really mean is that the Japanese sense and expression of irony, usually translated as hiniku, is not precisely the same as in the United States or some other countries. One common type of English ironic expression that falls flat is Japan involves expressing a reverse opinion about a subject when it is expected that the listener will be able to figure out that the speaker is not serious based on shared knowledge. Thus, for example, I heard an American student I'll call Greg emerge from a lecture hall after a long and rather pedantic talk and say to his Japanese companion, "Well, that was a barrel of laughs." Greg's friend looked flabbergasted, unable to imagine why on earth Greg would have found such a dull 90 minutes amusing.

When it's clear the irony is being lost on the listener, a speaker may make the choice to lay it on thick, adding layer after layer until his or her interlocutor is compelled to realize that the statement is not to be taken at face value. I once heard a Japanese woman who lived in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, complain that her house had no air-conditioning. "Oh, that must be tough living in Kamakura and all," said an American I'll call Adam, hamming up the display of commiseration so that it sounded like "Ohhhhh, that must be TOUGH living in KaMAkura." When prosodic cues failed to alert the woman to Adam's sardonic intention, he went further saying, "Yep, it must be so hard, living by the beach, having to cool off by going surfing. Boy, you have my sympathy." She got the point.

In Japan, another ironic nonstarter is the use of reversals in imperatives to lightly--or not so lightly--suggest that another person's action or behavior is inappropriate and indirectly request the opposite behavior. For example, someone who is crowding in too close to another person might be told, "Why don't you draw a little nearer?" Similarly, a wry "Thanks a lot" when jostled into spilling a cup of coffee doesn't make much sense in Japanese.

I conducted an informal survey among Japanese acquaintances about hiniku and found that most equated it with sarcastic criticism of the listener. A case in point was a mother visiting her grown daughter's messy home and exclaiming over how clean and well-organized it was. A father upon seeing a new handbag his daughter, a middle school student, had bought, commented that she must be very rich, implying that she should not have spent so much money. At the same time, one colleague whom I'll call Professor Matsuda noted that while she was frequently ironic with her students, the students often did not notice. For example, she had told a student who had handed in an exceedingly short homework assignment that she expected the next essay to be twice as long. When the student subsequently turned in a paper that was only slightly longer than the earlier one, Prof. Matsuda said dryly, "I'm glad to see such substantial improvement." To her surprise the student beamed at her and said happily, "Thanks!"

Moreover, unlike the English-language speakers I consulted about irony, who generally saw it as often humorous and a useful way to indirectly make a negative evaluation, every Japanese person I spoke to viewed hiniku unfavorably, with one woman observing that she would not like to be thought of as an ironic woman, and a man saying that while he spoke ironically sometimes reproached himself for it afterward. Shinichiro Okamoto, a social psychologist who has studied Japanese irony from several perspectives, found that the more utterances were perceived as ironic, the more they were also perceived as offensive.

Okamoto further found that the use of honorific language in negative evaluations increased the perception of irony. For example, in a situation in which a friend was 30 minutes late, respondents found the utterance with honorific language Zuibun osoku o-ide ni narimashita wa ne- more ironic (and offensive) than the non-honorific Zuibun osokatta ne-, both of which would translate into English as "You have arrived so late."

Modern Onsens

The NY Times has a travel article about the new modern designed Japanese hot springs (onsens) popping up around Japan:

WHAT happens when Japan’s deeply rooted traditions and its insatiable appetite for new technology collide? The results are on show in a recent wave of hot spring hotels, or onsen ryokans, that merge ancient ideas with concepts from modern design.

Though some Japanese might shudder at the idea of tampering with their age-old retreats, the new features may help ensure the survival of onsen ryokans.

The basic aspects of the onsen ryokan experience haven’t changed in centuries. Customers can enjoy long soaks in the hot spring baths, often with a view of the outdoors, in a remote, natural setting. They stay in a simple, elegant accommodations and can savor meals composed of as many as a dozen small, seasonal courses. And the spaces where they eat, sleep and, especially, bathe have many traditional cues.

“The most essential elements of an onsen ryokan are its location and quality of onsen water,” Hiroshi Ebisawa, an architect and designer who is a specialist in hot springs, said in an e-mail interview. “An architect usually struggles with how to create a cozy and comfortable ‘yu-kukan,’ or bathing space, between its surrounding landscape and onsen facility.”

Onsen ryokans have always been constructed of natural materials, Mr. Ebisawa said, including timber, earth, paper, bamboo, grass and cloth. Together with dim lighting, he said, they combine to form an environment that encourages “traditional behavior” — the personal, relaxing rituals of the Japanese bath.

But younger Japanese may see the onsen ryokan as too stuck in the past, especially with the expansion of their travel options.

Cool Erotica

Metropolis has an interesting article about Cool Erotica in this week's edition (the photo of the lovely Double is from Metropolis):

Serenely and alluringly, the lotus flower opens. Unabashed, the temptress strides out, brimming with sexual beauty and proclaiming that the age of the Japanese lolita has passed. She has blossomed instead into a modern Aphrodite, a woman whose physical beauty exudes power, confidence and charisma. The kawaii generation watches in awe as she transforms into something startlingly sexy yet still adorable. She is erotic yet cool—ero-kakkoii.

Why Japan Loves The 'Dog of Flanders'

Anne of Green Gables has a competitor as a much loved foreign novel-Dog of Flanders according to this story from The Daily Yomiuri:

BRUSSELS--A Belgian documentary film examining Japan's strange fascination with the tragic novel "A Dog of Flanders" will be shown Thursday at Antwerp cathedral in Belgium--the spot where the titular dog and the tale's lead character, Nello, die on Christmas Eve. The documentary came about after a film director who lives in Flanders, northern Belgium, was puzzled by the stream of Japanese tourists coming to visit the cathedral, as the novel is less well known in Belgium.

Titled "Patrasche, a Dog of Flanders," the documentary is directed by Didier Volckaert, 36, who got his inspiration for the film when he saw Japanese tourists looking tearful as they gazed up on Peter Paul Rubens' painting of "The Elevation of the Cross," which is displayed in the cathedral.

The book tells the tale of Nello, a boy who dreams of being a painter, and his dog, Patrasche. Driven from his village after being falsely accused of arson, Nello battles through snowstorms to get to Antwerp cathedral, as he has always dreamed of seeing Rubens' masterpiece. He reaches the church on Christmas Eve night, only to freeze to death as he gazes upon the object of his dreams.

The novel was written by British author Ouida, pen name of Marie Louise Rame, in the early 1870s. Though famous in Japan, it is little known in Europe, where it tends to be seen as the story of the death of "a big loser," according to Volckaert.

In the United States, the novel has been made into a movie five times, each time revised to have a happy ending.

The mystery is why the original sad ending only strikes a chord with the Japanese.

Trying to clear up the mystery, Volckaert and his colleagues dug up a variety of information and materials related to the tale and interviewed more than 100 people from six countries over three years.

Ultimately, Volckaert concluded that it was Japanese identification with "the nobility of failure" that drew them to the novel.

"The Japanese people, they think they reach a certain level of nobility by accepting defeat or failure in order to preserve things like loyalty, friendship and dedication. This is exactly what happened to Nello and Patrasche. Their death exemplifies such values of the Japanese people," said An van. Dienderen, the 36-year-old producer of the film.

"Patrasche, a Dog of Flanders" is mainly in Dutch, and runs one hour and 25 minutes. A DVD with English and Japanese subtitles can be bought on the Internet.