On Infantile Japan

I am really uncomfortable about calling Japan "infantile," because the age-old slander against the East frames it as the pedantic child of the West. I do not mean to call Japan an infantile nation-state, but I don't think anyone would disagree with me that Japanese culture and the national dialogue treats everyone as a little kid.

There is great proof that this is not an integral part of Japanese culture (or the Japanese genetic makeup if you're sadly trying to prove this in some context of eugenics), but something that started in Japan's economic progress of the 1970s. Until the end of the War, Japan was an Imperialist-Fascist authoritarian power, and even though the Americans brought democracy later, SCAP reinstalled all the right-wingers - who years earlier had been rah-rah cadets for the military aggressors - back into the government.

Living in Japan until the late 60s was a total bummer. The Socialists were close to fomenting revolution, and the LDP (backed by the CIA) was happy to employ yakuza thugs to stop it. If you stood up in your seat at a Beatles concert, they took your picture as a troublemaker.

Listen to the young idol singers of the 60s, like Hirota Mieko. When she was 14 or so, she put out her debut single "kodomo janai no yo," which sounds like it's sung by a 30 year old. Popular culture was adult-oriented.

The whole burikko infantilized Japanese female culture did not start until the 70s. There was no equivalent of Morning Musume in the 60s or 70s. In the mid-80s, Onyanko Club (The [wink!] Pussycat Club) comes on the scene, but opposed to the 90s mass-girl groups, Onyanko is all about selling underage sex and lolita fantasies to older men. Everyone accuses Morning Musume of doing this, but they are sexless and spayed compared to the Onyanko who had lyrics like "Please don't make me take off my sailor school uniform." (Se-ra-fuku wo nugasanaide!)

With the Japanese economic miracle and its ensuing equal distribution of wealth, crime and poverty disappeared and any left over was swept under the carpet. Children grew up in a world where a predetermined path to adulthood - school, study, college, career - could be followed without having to make any kind of difficult choices. TV became a sanitized outlet for stay-at-home moms.
Adult-type worries became a smaller and smaller part of the national consciousness. Sex - which traditionally was very free in Japan - became very hidden until it exploded again in the Bubble era. The authoritarian government did not necessarily want to concede power to the masses, but they realized that they no longer needed an iron fist - just a soft mitt.

But in the rubble of the earthquakes, the gas attack, the bursting of the Bubble, teenage prostitution, an end to lifetime employment and the whole protective system itself, Japan is again faced with adult realities. Some are furrowing into childlike hiding places to escape, while others are breaking from the societal bounds, rising above the masses, and succeeding wildly. This is no longer a place where success in life is as easy as getting a "A" in Conduct - there's no award for Perfect Attendance. And those who are taking steps toward making hard choices and embracing their adulthood are leaving the childish herd in their dust.

Those teddy bear ads still hope that everyone can be treated like a child, but sadly everyone has had to finally grow up.

Posted by marxy at October 31, 2004 1:06 PM