10. The moral void at the heart of Japan

By SHIN-ICHI TERASHIMA

  Although Japan is known as a country with a low crime rate, recent crimes in the financial world and among school children have received special attention. These types of crimes are rather new in Japanese society and seem to derive from ethical confusion.

Since the Meiji restoration, the Japanese government has　introduced laws from Western countries in order to modernize the country, but the rules governing a  "horizontal society" are logically incompatible with Japan's "vertical society".

  It is believed that in Japan rules are made for the ruler's convenience, and the Japanese are uncomfortable with this type of rule. On the other hand, it is believed that insiders (or members of the group) make rules for their own benefits and purpose. Avoiding outside interference is the main concern. This is related to the Japanese sense of being nurtured and indulged (amae).　Sometimes, money is paid for this purpose. The insiders' rule is, of course, private. Japanese have never imagined that they are sometimes under a universal rule.

  Different societies have different rules: Western rule is based on Judeo-Christian tradition, while the Japanese have no religious base. This is the most important aspect of the many differences between the two cultures.　Japanese have their own gods, but these gods have never given laws to govern the tribes of Japan in all their actions. Japanese gods are formal but not spiritual. Traditionally, the Japanese are accustomed to making their own rules - these are insiders' rules designed by and for themselves.

Recently, foreign companies have opened offices in Japan and have come to realize that Japanese business practices in the domestic market are different from the "official"  (written) rules. Japanese modernization is only superficial: The Japanese utilize both imported public rules and self-made private (true) rules which usually are not written down because that gives them a way to avoid outside interference. They believe that this manipulation is within their rights.

In daily life, people have no need to measure their conduct against God's law.  Although there are many temples and shrines in Japan, there are many people who consider themselves to be atheists because they have never directly received any instruction from gods. The Japanese have a strong contempt for litigation because they feel it is necessary to avoid an outsider's judgement and interference. To the Japanese, a rule is equivalent to a business contract: It is only a temporary rule for certain people. As a result, they are constantly making temporary rules because they are situational. Insiders' rules, which are arrived at through group deliberations, are not certain to be acceptable to the outside world as they are valid only within their tiny world.

  If malpractice occurs in a business situation, the persecutor charges the businessman according to the public rule. Members of a group are arrested one after another, because the approval of a decision from each major member is always inevitable in the company. This causes frustration for the Japanese businessmen who function under the rules of their own small world.

  Japanese are not accustomed to official rules, because they are not educated in a way that allows them to comprehend the ethical meaning of the rules. For them, such laws are merely the equivalent of rules in a game because they are not accustomed to finding the basis for such rules in God's words.

Traditionally, Japanese do not have horizontal social mobility because the vertical structure hinders any such movement; they cannot escape the traditional ladder of promotion. Promotion is supposed to be a long-term process, so an individual is required to persevere on the ladder for a long time. This is the basis of lifelong employment, and the guarantee of promotion is the way to keep the people moving in the right direction,

without inconvenience, and thereby maintaining a stable society.

This hierarchical promotion system is called the "escalator system", and throws student into a fierce competition for entrance into prestigious colleges. Although this competition is stifling, it is still popular and provides hope for the Japanese because they feel that if they stay with this system, promotion is guaranteed for life. Messhi (neglecting oneself) is also a very important concept in this traditional society. Naturally, a sense of personal mission based on individualism is neglected.

Japanese do not trust in God, just as communists do not. They worked very hard, and succeeded in making a society of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Communists might have envied Japan's prosperity which developed without God. But our happiness is too materialistic. We live by bread alone with a warm heart (not a sacred heart). The problem is that the Japanese find it difficult to leave this traditional way of life.

  Nowadays Japanese youths are outside this system, because they lack a sense of hierarchy. The word "on" (incurred obligation) has almost disappeared from the contemporary vocabulary. Most Japanese believe their language is beautiful when it contains a sense of hierarchy. Disruption of the Japanese language is the product of an unsuccessful moral education which emphasizes the sense of hierarchy.

We study Confucius' Analects in high school. Confucius taught how to distinguish superior human behavior from inferior human behavior, and great people (kunshi)  from small people (shojin).

  We have no sense of justice, however, because there is no custom of referring to God's laws.  Children are not certain whether murder is good or bad because they can commit murders many times playing video games. Unfortunately, they have  few opportunities to listen to the words of God in a church.  Even for Japanese, the sense of justice (which originates with God) cannot be neglected because it is closely related to a logical base that refers to a code of law.

  In this international era can the code of conduct be changed safely and steadily? A sense of justice and a sense of hierarchy are basically different. This double standard causes problems and confusion for people. Isaiah Ben-Dasan commented that only a madman would attempt to live in both simultaneously. Japanese people must to study their own nature, evaluate the past and assess the future if they are to recover confidence in basic ethical values.

The Japan Times, Monday, August 25, 1997

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