An Answer to Momus

Momus wrote me an eloquent response to my response to his essay on Postmodernism:

Sometimes I'm amazed by your anti-Japanese tone, Marxy. You sound like Japan's jilted lover! I mean, I know I probably err too much on the other side and you're just trying to correct the balance. But I think all too often you suggest that Japan just copies the west, or is some tangle of empty signifiers.

I like Japan. I like living in Tokyo, and I do not have any plans to move back to America in the near future. I like the relative cleanliness, politeness, and attention to detail, but also the chaos and unpredictability. There is a freedom to do what I want and buy what I want. I've never once regretted spending the last eight years actively studying Japan and Japanese.

When I first came to Japan in 1996, I was blown away by the creativity and the wholesale integration of good design into everyday life. I liked how the popular culture was unique and did not seem to specifically parrot American examples. My initial response was then: why did this happen?

Lately, many astute individuals have begun to introduce Japanese culture to the world, but still no one attempts to dig deeper and explain what is going on behind the scenes or provide an explanation of why this specifically happened in Japan.

Now after consuming and processing countless Western scholarly books on Japan, boxes upon boxes of Japanese magazines, various self-critical Japanese works, hours of long-winded conversations with thoughtful Japanese pundits, and eight years of first-hand experience with Japanese institutions (although not all in Japan), I am coming to conclusions about the Japanese cultural system and it's not pretty.

In Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu argued that good taste and an appreciation for culture do not just naturally spring up in the individual, but are inextricably linked to education and social capital. To really get what is going on in Japan, you have to look at the sociological, economic, and psychological structures guiding the culture, not just the end product. Everything in Japan on a superficial level is A-OK, but there is not much evidence that the ura (back) has changed much since WWII.

If you pass one girl in a crazy Fruits-type, lysergic outfit, this appears to be spontaneous creativity. But when you start passing girl two, three, and four in the exact same outfit, there are questions to be asked. And when you finally find the magazine that spells out exactly how to dress in this way, certainly the system no longer appears to be one of free-thinking democracy.

Personally I don't think The Simsons is a 'better' postmodernism than 'Super Milk Chan' or 'Oh! Mikey'. And, being of a rather anti-metaphysical mindset myself, I completely welcome what Takashi Murakami said in BT magazine:

'I think we won't need art and artists some day. That's why Japan is the future, don't you think so? We don't have any religion, we just need the big power of entertainment.'

My ongoing argument can be boiled down to: is it okay to like art but not understand art? Should we no longer expect people to get it, just buy it?

Do Japanese kids financially support a lot of revered, talented artists? Yes. Is there much evidence that they really understand what they are consuming? No.

That suggests to me that Japan regards postmodernism as a kind of anti-metaphysical utopia. We in the west are just too steeped in Plato, Christianity and the political consequences of the Reformation to ever throw off metaphysics so freely.

Sure, there are demographic issues in Japan's future and there's fascist imperialism in Japan's past. But the Japan I know is the Japan of now, and it's one of the most creative, interesting and intelligent cultures on earth.

Yes, but only by some weird historical anomaly. I often foolishly try to predict the future of Japan, but my worry is that Japan's creativity is not an integral part of the culture, but a byproduct of its structural alignment. And when external pressures change that structure, the culture will suffer. I think you are already seeing this. Who is the new Cornelius? The new Nigo? Even the Japanese themselves are worried about this younger generation. The word used to describe them is nurui - lukewarm. No passion, no interests. Even if the current Japan is great, this is worthless if the system cannot replicate itself, even for one generation.

For all its problems, America has been able to consistently churn out interesting culture, innovative business models, and cutting-edge technology for the last century, because the system is set up for this kind of progress. The Japanese system is not, and they do not even quite get why Japanese culture is so appealing to the West at this particular moment.

And by intelligence I would include pragmatic and aesthetic intelligence -- quality of life issues like social harmony, sensuality, civilised aesthetics, environmentalism and peacefulness. Sure, some of the arguments being advanced on strife-torn, highly political US talk radio might be smart, but is all that protestant bickering 'wise' in the way most Japanese are wise? Is the sound of US talk radio the sound of a nation of 'content' in either sense of the word? I think not.

Yes, Japan is way better than America on a whole myriad of day-to-day issues, but there is the eternal question, at what price? Is conflict-avoidance really wisdom? Is opinion-oppression really harmony? I am quick to devolve into over-critical arguments and a cynical outlook precisely because no one in Japan seems to be having the debates over the things I think need to be talked about. If I am not outraged, who will be?

Posted by marxy at November 1, 2004 12:47 PM