well see if this works or not...

Ah, glorious silence ... one of the things I really miss whenever I leave Japan.

Of course, John Cage told us that there is no such thing as silence. So the question is, is this silence tact, or complete indifference, or incomprehension, or annoyance, or silent admiration, or the sound of one hand clapping, or shyness, or an empty room, or mute wonder, or boiling rage, or zen meditation, or politeness, or the kind of silence you maintain when people with a completely different mindset from your own are discussing something in terms which you don't even begin to share, even when that "something" is you?

Let's hypothetically reverse the situation. You live in the US and are American. You're learning Japanese, so sometimes, to improve your skills, you lurk on a bulletin board in which ex-pat Japanese chat with each other in Japanese about life in New York. They're often complaining about stuff, and a recurring theme is that, unfortunately, the US is past its peak and isn't as much fun to live in as it was pre-9/11. They're mostly musicians, but they talk rather grandly about demographics, marketing, political problems. The US is in "terminal decline", it's the end of the empire.

Our Japanese ex-pat friends are "intellectuals", they look at the big picture. They're also men, which means that there's a dick-waving-contest aspect to many of their debates. Oh, and they all have American girlfriends who stay off the board except as indirectly quoted speech or when the boys plug their bands.

So one day there's a challenge: any native English-speaking lurkers out there? We want you to settle a debate, or give your opinion, possibly backing one of us up against the others. We're arguing about some old American pop records, asking whether they're symptomatic of the oddities of the American psyche or just a bit of fun. We've even written the request for comments in English to make it easier for you. Speak now or forever hold your peace, Americans!

*crickets*

Momus on Friday: "More opinions from real Japanese people on this site!"

Momus on Saturday: "Of course Japanese people won't comment on your lame site!"

Friday: "And you wonder why Japanese people don't comment on this blog?"

Saturday: "And you wonder why Japanese people don't comment on this blog?"

This is getting very playground, but it's not like there's any Japanese commenters on your site either and you LOVE Japan.

There was one authentic guy the other day and then the rest of the Japanese text was me...

Of course, John Cage told us that there is no such thing as silence.

I love that I knew this was Momus before I scrolled down and saw his name.

-sl

(btw, I mean that sincerely, not as a jab.)

There was a big spike of Japanese commenters on my blog when Yahoo Japan did a news story on my Ken Shimura song last year, but they don't seem to have stuck around. I have to say that even Hisae doesn't read Neomarxisme, despite the fact that I'm always soliciting her opinions on topics that come up here.

The picture is invariably this: Hisae and I are both sitting with our iBooks, surfing across the same wifi connection. I'm on English-language sites, Hisae is on Japanese-language sites. Occasionally there's something we'll both enjoy, like these David Shrigley animations:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/shrigley

But most of the time cultural lines are strictly maintained. It seems like further evidence of your riff about the disappearance of common culture. Globalisation seemed to offer a big hybrid culture, but people use the huge range of options available to make a tailor-made comfort blanket, to customize according to who they already are culturally rather than to become exotic Frankenstein's monsters full of borrowed, clashing perspectives.

But most of the time cultural lines are strictly maintained.

Then why is my blog read by Poles, Brits, the French, Swedes, Canadians, and Germans? It's because there's no language barrier for a large percentage of the developed world. If the Japanese were taught to speak/read real English and not the English Diagnostic Code, I don't think they would be so reluctant to engage in international culture.

All the more reason why they shouldn't be, then! You know, everybody in the world "getting" the Simpsons, and everybody in the world sharing the basic perspective of Neomarxisme, what a nightmare! No, what am I talking about, if Japanese particularism disappeared, Neomarxisme would too... there'd be nothing left to blog about!

You are bringing up a fundamental difference in our positions: you want Japan to stay "isolated" and "unique" whether it's good for Japan or not. I want Japan to suceed and believe that higher levels of international information literacy is necessary. If Japan can somehow become maintain their position as content provider in spite of increasing isolation, I think this could be interesting. However, I think "looking outward, making inward" has gone to "looking inward, making inward" and I'm worried about the cultural incest of recent Japanese PopCult. Also, no matter what happens, those with English language skills who hope to break the old system and provide users with more access to the rest of the world stand to make a pretty penny. The Japanese system is failing a large segment of the population, and those left out are (unfortunately?) turning to Western social structures and ideas as a way to fulfill self interests. Internally, the virus is spreading...

But what is "success" if it entails loss of identity? "What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" et cetera.

Well, Japan was a military-controlled, closed country with highly-stratified social classes for much longer than it has been an internationally-influenced postindustrial society. It's already lost its "identity," no?

Hi, Marxy.

I have found this blog on Boing Boing's entry about the Gaba ad and I feeded this blog's RSS into my RSS reader in no time.

Well, why we japanese don't comment on this blog?

From my point of view, most japanese are "foreignophobia", so they (ur, we) try their best to avoid communications with foreigners. And they are afraid of making mistake in public, so they are unwilling to speak (or write) English (because their communication skills in English are, in fact, very low).

I think japanese should be more audacious.

Don't be afraid of mistakes, comarades!

hear! hear! boys/girls, be ambitious!

but along with that i would also like to say that even with this blog getting boing-blinged or whatever the other day (woah...), it isn't like we suddenly have like a BIG proportional increase in the people reading AND commenting, even though you KNOW that all the boing-blingers who came over from wherever are mostly english speakers. i mean, the topics/threads here require a certain esoteric level of understanding of japan that frankly (and i'm not trying to toot any horns here when i say this) most people don't have, EVEN if they HAVE been in japan a long time, the whole language issue aside. sure, marxy, nick, chris, and a few others can have this conversation here, but we've been around the block here a few times PLUS we aren't exactly part of the 'lumpen' (zing!) masses, right? right?
word,
r.

Hayashi: Thanks for the post. I hope some Japanese readers will comment in Japanese if possible. Maybe it's my fault though for not writing the essays in Japanese.

Robert; Boing Boing is a fickle mistress, and my traffic goes back to normal after increasing by 10x in one day. However, I do seem to be collecting daily readers as we go along and I've been happy to hear from new people lately.

So the question is, is this silence tact, or complete indifference, or incomprehension, or annoyance, or silent admiration, or the sound of one hand clapping, or shyness, or an empty room, or mute wonder, or boiling rage, or zen meditation, or politeness, or the kind of silence you maintain when people with a completely different mindset from your own are discussing something in terms which you don't even begin to share, even when that "something" is you?

I thought the answer was self-evident: it's the sound of listening.

Hi guys!
I'm Japanese and check this blog almost everyday!

I love this blog because there are lots of articles that even Japanese don't know. Keep uploading interesting articles, marxy. I'll comment if I think you are wrong about perception of Japanese culture, even though I'm poor English writer...

I'll comment if I think you are wrong about perception of Japanese culture

Ah, now there's a reason for silence I totally overlooked: silence as the sound of Japanese people waiting in vain for Marxy to say a single incorrect thing about Japanese culture! (Kenken, you missed a couple of posts where even Marxy admitted he was wrong.)

Hey,
I am Canadian and I read marxy's site regularly. I have never commented as my first-hand knowledge on most subjects lacks.(I am in the Asia Studies dept. at Uni, but so far my studies have focused on contemporary China, and Canada's relationship with Asia, I haven't been able to take anything related to Japan other than a first year 日本語のクラッス.)

I'm more interested in Marxy's analysis of music and music trends, being somewhat of a artist/producer/assembler etc, although my own leanings are more to the minimal techno/IDM spectrum. I have beome interested in some artists such as AOKI Takamasa, Sketch Show, Tuujiko Noriko etc...
If anyone is so inclined, here is a link to a more recent work of mine.
http://www.chompers-dubs.com/charlie_1979_-_weprn.mp3

Anyway, thank you Marxy for providing an entertaining and informative fora for these subjeects!

Mr. Hayashi wrote out an overall comment on my blog debates here. The following is a brief translation of his comments. I would encourage anybody to correct me if I get something wrong.

1) In regards to the Onyanko Club comments spinning out of hand into a debate whether foreigners should be talking about Japan (which he frames as Momus vs. Everyone Else), he finds it interesting to hear about his own country from the Other (他者). He likes that foreigners talk about things he doesn't notice: the "Japan is pretty weird" trope.

2) About whether you can be both a guest and a judge. He likens this to "When in Rome..." and admits a certain need for adhering to behavioral standards but sees no limit on hearing what the foreigner thinks.

3) He disagrees with our conclusion that the robots are about the labor shortage. He sees robot automation as a way to get rid of human labor costs and increase profits. Doing R&D for the robots will cost as much as decreasing future labor costs, but this still seems more plausible than our racist conspiracy.

4) Importation of foreign culture into Japan. He agrees with Momus that they suck out the soul before consuming but doesn't see this as uniquely Japanese. This is just a byproduct of cultural movement. He isn't quite convinced of my Confucianist explanation of form over content.

It makes sense that if you really want to attract a Japanese audience, you're going to have to start publishing in a bilingual format, meaning writing every post in English and Japanese (I think Joi Ito does that). Like Nick says, I think most Japanese stick to Japanese sites, like Hisae does, like my wife Yuko does. You have to admit, David, that you do write in a rather academic style a lot of the time, and I can't see someone with a basic understanding of English really being able to read and understand what you write about, and this includes Japanese people that are comfortable chatting in English.

I'm not saying that you need to change anything with your site, as it's quite interesting and unique in what it does in the current blogosphere. But something palatable to a Japanese audience it is not.

Marxyさんはじめまして。まだ誰も日本語でコメントしてないようなので一番乗りします。Marxyさんの友人などからとても聡明な方と伺ったので結構緊張します；；日本人だけではなくコメントを残しにくいのは議論をしている人たちが内輪なメンバーだからじゃないでしょうか。常連で更に日常でも付き合いがある人達の中で難解な英語を使ってる所には正直入りにくいです。ブログの内容については、私のブログでこちらのものとかぶった事が数回あるようですが、その際に読者から指摘を受けました。（地下鉄の東京観光推進のポスターとか）個人的には邦楽は全く聴かないのでおニャン子クラブの歌詞の分析など大変勉強になります。歌詞の日本語の原文などもあれば嬉しいです。これからのエントリー楽しみにしてます。密かに読み続けますのでがんばってください。

ゆきさん：コメント、ありがとうございました。そちらのサイトのほうが大変に面白と思います。日本語が読めない人は、本物の日本人の世界に覗かせてもらって、喜んでいるでしょうね。

ゆきさんがおっしゃった通りに、4人の喧嘩があったら、誰も入りたくないかもしれません。でも、もし最初から色々な人の意見があったら、そういう固まっている状態にならない可能性もあります。

about time! (thanks yuki!)

Non-Japanese lurker here. I agree with what you said that the discussions wouldn't develop into fights if there were more people than four people participating. In one of the couple of times I posted a comment here, I tried to steer the debate back to the topic of the post, but it was too late. You had already been 'hurt' by Momus and everything just became a bit of a bickering after that. I'm just a bit concerned that this personal bitching is going to affect your posts.

I'm just a bit concerned that this personal bitching is going to affect your posts.

Thanks for the concern. I have been self-editing a lot lately, knowing that a certain someone is going to endlessly stress me out if I go too far in the wrong direction. This may be better for my writing though.

You should move this whole thing to Mixi... ;P